


Postponing Inevitability

by Clare_Hope



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Assassination Attempt(s), F/M, Family Bonding, Hurt/Comfort, Lucretia has Wonderland trauma (what else is new), Lucretia is p much Magnus's sister, M/M, Post-Episode: e067-069 Story and Song Parts 1-3, Taako has stuff to work through, people try to kill Lucretia, the birds won't let that happen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:00:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 26,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23508004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clare_Hope/pseuds/Clare_Hope
Summary: Recovering and building new lives becomes more complicated when Lucretia almost gets assassinated (more than once). With plenty of help from the rest of the family, Magnus decides to take matters into his own hands.
Relationships: Magnus Burnsides & The Director | Lucretia, The Director | Lucretia & Everyone, The Director | Lucretia & Taako
Comments: 117
Kudos: 85





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm @argonaut--keene on tumblr, come find meeeeee! (Also, warnings for this whole fic: the graphic depictions of violence archive warning is there for a reason. Plus everyone is traumatized by all sorts of things.) Enjoy! <3

There was a knock at the door.

_ Did I lose track of time? _ Lucretia wondered. She glanced at the watch on her wrist.  _ No, it's only noon. Magnus must be early. _ She got up from her desk and went over to the door. "My door is always unlocked, you know," she called as she fumbled for the doorknob. "You can just--"

There was nobody at the door. Lucretia had just enough time to be confused and to wonder if she had imagined the knocking, when there was a sharp prick in the side of her neck. Her hand flew up and felt a tiny, feather tipped dart sticking out just below her ear.

Time seemed to slow. She tore the dart out of her skin as a wave of dizziness washed over her, followed by a painful muscle spasm that sent her collapsing to the ground. Lucretia briefly tried to reach for the stone of farspeech hanging around her neck, but her vision was going dark and her arm refused to move. More pain swirled around her body.  _ Poor Magnus, he will be devastated to find me like this, _ was the last thing she managed to think before her mind faded into darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some notes: when I was first writing this, it was just a small collection of vaguely related bits about Lucretia re-bonding with her family. Somehow, there is now plot, so I decided to actually post it. Forgive me. <3

Magnus whistled cheerfully as he walked down the path to Lucretia's place. She hadn't felt like she would be very welcome at the house they all shared which was closer to the city, so she had gotten a small house of her own where she spent most of her time. Magnus always insisted on visiting her when he wasn't in Raven's Roost. Today, they had planned on going to the city and getting lunch together.

He frowned when he saw that her door was swinging open.  _ She must have been distracted and forgot to close it, _ he thought. But he hurried his pace all the same.

When he noticed the small figure lying on the ground in the doorway, he burst into a sprint. "Lucretia!" he shouted. For a horrible, horrible moment as he dropped to his knees next to her, she looked very much not alive.

Then she took a labored breath in, exhaling with a rattling sound. Her lips were tinged pale blue. There was no obvious sign of injury, but as Magnus lifted up her hand, a small feathered dart clattered to the floor. He quickly swept her hair, which had grown out to her shoulders since the day of story and song, to the side. A trickle of blood ran down the side of her neck.

"Lucretia," Magnus said, almost crying. "Creesh, wake up! Creesha!"  _ Help, get help! _ He grabbed his stone of farspeech and called the last frequency the stone had been tuned to.

"Mags, what's up? I'm a little busy--" Lup began.

" _ Help! _ " Magnus wailed. "Lucretia--she's hurt, bring help, please!"

Lup drew in a sharp breath. "Where are you?"

"Her house. Please hurry!"

"We'll be right there," Lup promised.

Magnus picked Lucretia up in his arms, cradling her close. She weighed practically nothing. As he lifted her into a more upright position, her breathing eased slightly. "Hold on, please," he told her. "I know you can't hear me but  _ please _ , please, I can't lose you. Oh, please, Creesh. Help is coming, just hang on. Keep breathing."

A slash opened in the air and Barry stepped through. "Magnus?"

He looked up desperately. "She needs help!"

"Lup is getting Merle. In the meantime…" Barry knelt down next to them. He reached out and touched Lucretia's forehead. The blue color in her lips faded and her breathing became more even. Barry let out a sigh of relief and glanced back at Magnus. "Spare the Dying. Only healing spell I've got, but she's stable."

Magnus swallowed a sob.  _ Dying.  _ "Thank you."

"O-of course. What  _ happened _ ?"

"I don't know, I...I just got here, we were gonna go to lunch, and I found her like this. Well, someone must have shot her with this." Magnus gingerly picked up the dart from the floor and showed it to Barry.

Barry gritted his teeth. "Someone tried to kill her," he stated.

Magnus hadn't wanted to allow that thought to cross his mind. Now that it had been spoken aloud, there was no escaping it. "But who would have--"

"Everyone knows who she is a-and what she did, Mags," Barry reminded him. "Plenty of people probably hate her."

Another rift opened up. This time, Merle and Lup stepped out. Merle looked serious as he assessed the situation.

"I got her stable, but…" Barry didn't have to finish the sentence for Merle to know that Lucretia was still pretty bad off.

The dwarf put his hands over Lucretia's heart and closed his eyes. A warm golden glow surrounded his hands as he cast several healing and restoration spells simultaneously.

Lup crouched down next to Magnus and put her hand on his shoulder. "She's gonna be okay, big guy. You got her help." Her voice was soft. "She'll be alright."

"She's responding well to the spells," Merle said. "Whatever toxin they used, it isn't very persistent. It's already breaking down in her system. She  _ is _ gonna be alright."

Now that the terror was dissipating, Magnus let a few tears slip out. "I was so scared when I found her," he mumbled.

"I bet," Lup said.

"Sh-she's like my sister, I can't lose her, and I was just so scared."

Lup took his hand. "Believe me, I understand. It's  _ hard _ , so hard. But you got help. It's gonna be okay."

"I thought I had gotten here too late, just like with…" He couldn't finish the sentence.

"Hey, Maggi, let's get her into bed," Merle said. "She's getting better, but it might take her a couple hours to wake up."

Magnus didn't want to stop holding her. She felt so fragile, like she might break if he put her down. He hadn't held her like this since they were back on the Starblaster. Both of them were older now, but Lucretia's time in Wonderland had left her almost  _ frail _ . But he wiped his eyes and picked her up carefully, carrying her down the hallway and laying her down on her bed. "I'll sit with her," he said.

Everyone else exchanged looks and nodded at him. "Holler if anything happens," Merle said. "We'll be right in the other room, okay?"

Magnus mumbled an affirmation and sat down on the edge of the bed, holding Lucretia's hand. He hadn't really been into her bedroom before. It was very similar to the one on the ship. She always did find comfort in familiarity. A few bookshelves lined one wall. There was a three-drawer dresser and a closet as well, and her bed was fairly small. The portrait of the seven of them hung on the wall next to the bed. Magnus gazed at it fondly. He missed her paintings. She hadn't done any that he'd seen in a long time.

After about an hour and a half, Lucretia sighed in her sleep. Her eyelashes were fluttering, and her hand in Magnus's gave the faintest trace of a squeeze.

"Creesha?" he whispered. "You awake?"

"I'm not sure," she answered groggily. "Magnus?"

"Yeah, I'm here."

"I...I'm sorry…"

He shook his head. "What are you sorry for?"

She blinked a few times and focused on him. "Missing lunch, I suppose."

Magnus had to laugh. He knew that Lucretia was teasing him a little. "Oh, it's alright. We can get lunch anytime. Besides, you were a little busy not dying."

"How…?"

"I found you and got you some help," he said simply. "You're gonna be fine. Lucretia, do you know what happened?"

Her hand slowly inched up to the side of her neck.

"We saw the dart. Do you know who shot it?"

Lucretia looked apologetic. "I'm sorry, I have no idea, I...I just opened the door and I felt it. I was down before I could see anything."

Magnus tried not to look too upset. "That's okay, we'll figure it out." He patted her hand. "Just rest, okay?"

"Mmhmm." Her eyes drifted over to the painting on the wall. She seemed peaceful as she looked at it.

"I love that painting," Magnus told her.

She nodded. "You know...I can't quite remember where I got it."

Magnus paused, confused. "Um, Lucretia?" he said in the gentlest voice he could. "Creesh, sweetheart,  _ you _ painted it."

The surprise in her eyes was brief before she covered it up. "Oh, of course. Sorry, I'm...not feeling…" She gestured vaguely to her head. "I'm a bit foggy."

He knew her too well to accept that. "You made it that year on the beach, remember?" he prompted.

"What?"

Now Magnus was worried. "Cycle 21, Lucy. I mean, it was a long time ago, but…"

A dark, disappointed look crossed her face. "21? Ah."

Magnus squeezed her hand. "It was a good year. You...you don't remember it at all, do you?" He recognized that look of confusion and unhappiness. He had felt it himself, plenty of times.

"I'm afraid not."

"How did you lose a whole year?" Magnus wondered. "How…" There was a sinking feeling in his stomach as he realized that he didn't need to ask.

Other than the twenty years of life, Lucretia had never mentioned anything else she had lost in Wonderland. And Magnus had never asked. Now he had a suspicion that he knew at least one other thing that the awful liches had taken from her.

"Oh, Luce…"

Lucretia turned her face away from Magnus and closed her eyes. She tried to pull her hand away, but he didn't let her.

"You don't have to talk about it right now," he promised. "But...someday, will you tell me about it?"

There was a long pause. Then she nodded slowly.

Magnus rubbed her shoulder comfortingly. "Thanks, Creesh. Okay, okay. You're okay. Hey, Lucretia?"

"Hm?"

"I really don't like that someone tried to hurt you." His voice shook. "And that if I hadn't been coming over, you would have...Lucretia,  _ please _ , will you come live with us? You could move into the big house, or just come with me to Raven's Roost if you'd be more comfortable. Please. I need you to be safe. For _ me _ . You don't have to do it for yourself, but I'm never going to stop worrying whenever you're out of my sight now. This was too scary."

Lucretia started trying to sit up. She fell back down with a wince. "I'll...consider it, Magnus."

"Hey, don't try to move. Just rest. Are you in pain?" he asked.

"Not unless I move, or breathe," Lucretia said with a wry smile. "No, really, it just aches a bit. A little more than everything aches all the time. I'm alright."

Magnus didn't think he would call any of this  _ alright _ , but he let it go. "Get some more rest, okay? We can talk more about stuff when you're all better."

"Rest seems like...a good idea," she murmured, and then she was falling asleep again. Magnus rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand as she slept. Her smooth brown skin was soft and warm, and her hand felt so tiny in his. He couldn't stifle the protective, almost older-sibling urge that he had harbored towards Lucretia since the day he had met her. Even though she was a couple of years his senior and now looked twenty years older, he doubted that he would ever stop thinking of her as his little sister.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also hey, go read my fic Invisible Scars if you're enjoying this one! It's about Taako and his chronic pain after getting beat up in Wonderland, and it's like, good and stuff. Take care of yourselves! Love ya! <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter isn't much plot, but I wanted to talk more about Lucretia's losses in Wonderland. 'Cause you _know_ that it wasn't just 20 years that she had to sacrifice, that's not how Edward and Lydia work. So all obvious warnings about Wonderland & trauma apply here. Side note: I love Magnus very much.

It was a relief when Lucretia quickly gave in and moved to Raven's Roost with him. An extra room was built onto his house, and she stayed there every night she wasn't too busy with the Bureau of Benevolence. They didn't talk about it, but both of them were overjoyed not to have to live alone anymore. On the Starblaster, they had been the youngest by far (Barry was next, and he was a solid 20 years older than Lucretia), which had probably been why they had quickly grown so close. Neither really wanted to discuss it because of the painful memories it would bring up; however, both of them had missed sharing a living space  _ so darn much _ .

A month after the incident with the poison dart, Magnus found Lucretia hunched over her desk, a pen clutched in each hand. She was hyperventilating.

"Luce? Hey, hey! Lucy, honey, what's wrong?" Magnus asked. He uncurled her hands around the pens, letting her wrap them around his wrists instead. "Breathe, Lucy, breathe. Can you stand up?"

He managed to get her up and away from the desk, into the cozy living room and onto the couch. She was wiping furiously at her eyes with shaky hands. "I'm fine, Magnus, I-I'm fine."

"Bullshit," he replied, not unkindly. "What got you all panicky? We gotta figure it out so we can make sure it doesn't happen again."

Lucretia put her hands down on her knees, gripping so tightly that her knuckles turned pale. "I can't do it anymore," she said simply, as if that would explain everything.

Magnus sat down next to her. "Oh...kay, I need more than that, Creesh."

She sniffled, brought her hands back up, and mimed writing simultaneously with both hands.

"Why not? Just, um, out of practice, or…?"

Another tear rolled down her cheek. "Of everything, it's silly to be upset about losing that, right?" she asked. "I...it was just a party trick, really. Sometimes useful but mostly...silly."

"Oof," Magnus said involuntarily as he realized what Lucretia meant. He put his hand on her back. "Not silly to be upset. It's okay, Creesh."

She leaned onto his shoulder with a quiet sigh. "I haven't told anyone else," she murmured. "About that, or the memories, or...well, there were other things, too."

"Mmhmm, I figured there were. You wanna tell me about it? You can talk to me about anything, Creesh, you know that." Magnus gave her a gentle squeeze as he put his arms around her.

"Where do I even start?"

He hummed thoughtfully. "The first thing they took was my pinky finger," he said after a while. "That's back, of course, 'cause I've got a brand new body. Got the ten years back, too, and some, uhh, they called it vitality."

"I didn't know about the finger," Lucretia said.

"Yeah, it...it wasn't that big of a deal, honestly."

Lucretia took a deep breath and said, "They took five years first, on the very first deal--ours was chess and other board games and card games, you know, not a wheel."

He acknowledged it with a nod.

"And then--well, we got through three rounds. You knew that. Or really,  _ I _ got through three rounds, and then…"

"You did what you had to," Magnus reminded her.

"I took five losses, in total. The games weren’t exactly rigged, I think, but it was nearly impossible to win them. We lost all of them but one in three rounds, so a basis of five sacrifices--two for me, three for Cam. But I ended up taking five in total. I took one for Cam, took one penalty for him, and took one penalty for myself." Now that she was talking, her voice was remarkably steady. "Five years first. Then my ambidexterity. That was the one I took so Cam didn't have to take any. I'm right-handed now. The left is pretty useless."

Magnus found her left hand and held it. "Not useless," he said. "See, it's perfect for holding."

She allowed him a small smile at that. "That's one way to look at it, I suppose."

"Wanna tell more, or is that enough for one day?"

"No...no, I'm going to tell you everything. Just give me a moment." Lucretia closed her eyes.

"Hey, Creesha? I gave up the memory of the person who killed Julia," Magnus said slowly. "I know someone did it, but I wouldn't recognize them or know who they were if I heard the name. So I can't...hunt them down, or anything."

She looked at him with shock. "Oh?"

"Y'know, since we're sharing."

It seemed to give her the courage to keep going. "For the second deal that round, I gave up most of my color vision. That's one of the reasons I don't paint anymore. It's not...I don't see in black and white, but colors are mostly grey-ish and dull.

"Aw, shit, Creesh. That sucks a lot."

"It does," she said. She sounded a bit surprised that Magnus was so sympathetic about that one. "But it's not...you know, Merle lost darkvision  _ and _ an eye."

"Listen, Lucy, we don't compare things like that. We all had stuff taken from us, and it doesn't do any good to say that we can't feel hurt because someone else might have had it worse," Magnus let her know. "It's why we're talking about it, yeah? 'Cause it only makes it worse to pretend it never happened."

"I...I suppose that's true. It was the first game in round three that I lost Cycle 21," she continued. "They took the best year from me, and I...I have no idea what happened. I know you told me, but I slowly lost it again. I'm never going to retain anything you tell me about it, though I know now that I painted that portrait of all of us during it. I have to make the connection every time I want to think about it. You told me that I painted it, and I believe that, but I can't remember doing it and so it must have been during that lost year."

"Yeah. Don't worry, it wasn't...I mean, it was a good year, but you didn't lose anything… well, you kept the important stuff, Luce. You don't need to remember the year to remember that we love you," Magnus tried to reassure her.

A bit of tension left her posture. Lucretia was leaning against him more comfortably now, more like the way that they used to snuggle on the ship. "Magnus?"

"Yeah, Luce."

"I love you, too. And this next part is going to be difficult."

He held her a little more firmly. "I've gotcha."

"I meant that it might be difficult for  _ you _ ," she clarified.

"Huh?"

"After I took the memory loss, Cam had to opt for a penalty. He took one of the next draws, and I wagered another memory on a game of chess. As you know, I lost."

Magnus frowned and counted surreptitiously on his fingers.  _ Five years, ambidexterity, color vision, Cycle 21...she said she took five losses. The last one should have been 15 years, not...but no, she said she took a penalty on the third round. _

"Magnus, they wanted to take something more severe from me. One year out of over 120 wasn't enough. This time, they wanted to take a person. My best friend, they asked for." Now her voice was shaking again. "They...they wanted to take  _ you _ , Magnus."

"Oh...oh, Lucretia…"

"We couldn't really afford another penalty, both of us were already so...but I just couldn't lose you. Even though I...I hadn't given  _ you _ the choice of whether to lose me," Lucretia said. She shook with a sudden sob. "I took the penalty. Lost the other fifteen years. Cam was so shocked by how much it drained me that he took the last draw. And then it was the bonus round, and I got out, and…"

Magnus shushed her and held her tighter as she started to cry in earnest. "Okay, alright. I think that's enough for now, Lucretia." She had been right. That  _ was  _ difficult to hear. Lucretia had given up 15 years of her life to keep her memory of him. And yet, selfishly, he was glad that she had done so. "Shhh, it's alright," he murmured.

"I felt so hypocritical," she sobbed. "I still do. I took so much from all of you that I couldn't bear to lose for myself, but if I had...I may never have found you again!"

"Lucretia, listen to me," Magnus said, quietly and seriously. "What happened, happened. It's in the past now. I mean, I know better than most people about how looking back at the past too much can lead to bad decisions."

"I know, I know."

"Then don't...hey, here, take a deep breath. There you go," he encouraged. "That's a little better. Shh, shh, it's okay. Easy, now. We gotta get you calmed down, okay?"

Lucretia was shaking like a leaf. It felt like she might just shatter into little pieces if she kept shivering. "Magnus, I can't…"

"Come here, come here. Lucy, you're gonna be okay. I've got you. You're gonna be okay." Magnus stroked up and down her arms, just wanting her to calm down enough that she could stop trembling. He murmured soothingly and rocked slightly until she was finally still. "There you go, that's better. Hey, let's just sit here for a little while, okay? Okay, there. How ya doing, Lucy?"

"'m alright, Magnus. Thank you."

"So, wanna sit here for a while?"

She nodded tiredly. "Thank you," she said again.

"You don't need to thank me, Lucy. You don't need to do anything but sit here with me and breathe."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I have 9 chapters written of this now! Expect to see a lot more of it in the next few weeks. And hey, come talk to me on tumblr! I'm @argonaut--keene!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enter Taako from stage left! Warnings for...well, Taako and Lucretia talking, and also discussion about mortality because Of Course. Enjoy! <3

The rain drummed on the windows at the little house in Raven’s Roost. It was cold outside and the wind sounded sad, but Lucretia and Magnus were sipping hot chocolate in the warmth and comfort of the kitchen and silently enjoying each other’s company. Lucretia was about to reach for another cookie on the plate that Lup had brought over yesterday when there was a frantic knock on the door. Startled, Lucretia spilled a little of her hot chocolate on her hand. "Ouch," she muttered.

Magnus stood up and looked over at the door. "Who in their right mind would be out on a night like this?" he wondered. "Maybe they need h--"

Taako's voice shouted through the door. "Can somebody let me in? I'm a fuckin' elfsicle out here."

"I guess I'm right, nobody in their right mind." Magnus winked at her and went to open the door.

As soon as the door was open, Taako shoved his way into the house. He was soaking wet and shivering. His ears were drooping. He wasn't wearing his hat or a coat, and looked like he had rushed out of the house without much notice.

"Whoa, what?!" Magnus exclaimed. "What's wrong, buddy?"

"I'm f-fucking freezing," Taako said, his teeth chattering. "That's what's wr-wrong."

"Well, come in and dry off," Magnus said, confused. "I meant why are you  _ here _ ? Is something wrong?"

"I--" Taako turned and looked at Lucretia.

She froze, wilting under his gaze. Although Taako tolerated her presence in a group setting, he had made it abundantly clear that he was not going to forgive her and didn't want to spend time with her anymore. She didn't blame him, of course, and had sadly accepted the fact that one of her family members was going to hate her forever.  _ But then why is he-- _

"I n-need to t-t-talk t-to you," he told her.

"What?"

"You h-heard me." Taako was still shuddering from the cold. His lips looked a little blue.

"Oh- _ kay _ , let's get you warmed up first," Magnus said quickly. "C'mon, Taako, you're soaked. You need dry clothes and a blanket. How long have you been out there?"

Patting his clothes, Taako made the water disappear with a puff of steam. "Th-there, I've got d-dry clothes."

"You're still shivering," Magnus pointed out.

"I'll be  _ fine _ , and I need to t-talk to Lucretia."

Magnus stepped in between the two of them. "Taako, is that a good idea?"

There was a few seconds of silence. Then a mage hand shoved Magnus out of the way and Taako walked up to the table, putting his hands on the back of an empty chair. "Lucretia," he said. "Can I talk to you, please?"

"Of course, Taako." She put her hot chocolate aside and stood up. "Do you want to stay here, or…"

"Magnus, can you give us a minute?" Taako requested.

As if he was asking for permission, Magnus glanced at Lucretia, who nodded. "Yeah, okay. I'll, um, be in my workshop. If I'm...needed." He left the room with a final, concerned look over his shoulder.

Lucretia didn't pretend that her hands weren't shaking. "What did you want to--"

Taako interrupted her. "Someone tried to  _ kill you _ ?!" he said.

"What--"

"Someone--" Taako tapped the side of his neck. "Tried to kill you, Lucretia?"

"That…" Lucretia winced at the memory of the painful dart. "Taako, that was three months ago."

"Nobody thought to  _ fucking tell me _ about it until  _ today _ !" Taako shouted.

Lucretia flinched. "Oh?"

"Somebody tried to kill you, and nobody even fucking told me!"

"Taako, I'm sorry, I don't know what you want me to say--"

Taako slammed his hand down on the table loudly. "You almost died!"

"Yes? But I'm alright, see?" She was very confused. "Taako, why is this--"

"Because," Taako said, and suddenly his voice was shaking with grief more than anger. "Because, it was  _ my fault _ , Lucretia, and nobody even cared to tell me.  _ Lup _ didn't tell me!"

"I don't understand," Lucretia said. "How on earth was it your fault?"

"You were living by yourself in that stupid tiny house because I didn't want you to live with us. That's why you moved here, isn't it? Because you almost fucking died?" Taako demanded.

"Magnus was worried about me," she responded.

Taako's hands came up to clutch at his damp hair in frustration. " _ Damn it _ !"

"Taako…" Lucretia bit back her next words, which would have been  _ please calm down _ . She had a feeling those particular words wouldn't have been very welcome. 

"No, don't," he choked out. He collapsed into the chair he had been holding onto. "Just let me be pissed off for a minute, okay?"

She nodded and sat back down. Taako wasn't lashing out at her, which was an unexpected but pleasant surprise. Still, she hoped that Magnus had the intuition to call Lup and tell her what was happening. Taako was clearly upset, and Lup was often the only one who could talk him down these days.

"I just can't believe nobody thought it was important to tell me about something like that," Taako said eventually. He was a little calmer now.

"Can I say something?" Lucretia said hesitantly.

Taako waved his hand nonchalantly. "Go for it."

"You haven't given anyone much of an indication that you want updates on me," she said. "From what I've heard, you leave the room at the first mention of my name. Perhaps someone  _ did _ try to tell you and you, ah, didn't hear."

He squinted. "...fair point."

Encouraged, Lucretia continued, "I doubt anyone tried to  _ hide _ it from you, Taako. I had no idea that you didn't know--but I suspect you understand why I didn't tell you myself."

"Because I won't talk to you, yeah."

"Exactly," she said, wondering again why he was even sitting in the same room as her.

Taako was silent for a minute. "Do you know who...or even  _ why _ ?"

She shook her head. "Well, we can guess at the motive. There are a few groups out there who have dedicated themselves against me and the Bureau. But no, we don't know who precisely."

"Are you safe?"

Of everything Lucretia might have expected him to say, that one was pretty far down the list. She tilted her head. "What?"

"Are. You. Safe? Are you safe here? What if they decide to come finish the job?" Taako asked.

"Magnus is here, Taako. He won't let anything happen to me," Lucretia assured him.

"We can't risk losing you."

"You're showing a surprising amount of concern for someone you hate," Lucretia couldn't help pointing out.

Taako clenched his fists. "Fuck you, Lucy. I might hate you, but Lup doesn't, for some goddamn reason. I can't let her get hurt because of you again. And if they go through Magnus, too? We'd just be losing both of you, and where would we be then?" he snapped.

"You think I haven't thought about that?" Lucretia said, allowing her volume to raise slightly. "I know I'm putting him in danger, Taako, and I hate it. The only reason I'm here is because he threatened to move in with me instead, and it's marginally safer here. And I'm farther away from the rest of you, now. You should be glad; you don't have to see me as often."

"But I still don't want you to  _ die _ , Lucretia!" Taako burst out. He turned his head away from her. He looked as if he was fighting back tears. "As much as I can't forgive you. You know that, right?"

"No. I didn't," she said honestly. "I didn't think you  _ wanted _ me to die. But I just can't tell with you anymore. And I wouldn't blame you if you did."

Taako choked out something between a laugh and a sob. " _ Yeah _ . Yeah, you're right. I don't even fucking know why I'm here."

"I don't either. But I'm glad you are."

He glanced back at her. "I can't forgive you," he repeated.

"I will never ask or expect you to," Lucretia replied.

"But I think…" He swallowed. "I think that  _ some _ day, I might be able to...move forward?"

Taken aback, Lucretia felt the sudden sting of tears in the corners of her eyes.  _ That's more than I could have ever hoped for. _

Taako must have noticed the expression on her face. "Not today, and not tomorrow. But someday. Maybe."

She couldn't stop herself from saying, "Remember that we don't have forever anymore, Taako. Well, you still might, but I don't, you know. If you are ever going to move on, please...please let it be while I'm still around to see it. If that isn't too much to request."

He looked as if someone had struck him across the face. "Oh," he said hoarsely. "I…"

She wished that she hadn't said anything. It  _ was _ too much to request, of course it was. She would be lucky if she got another thirty years of life, and that was practically a blink for an elf. Taako wouldn't move forward that quickly after what she had done to him. "I'm sorry, Taako. Please ignore that I said anything, I--"

"Shut up," he said. "Shut up, you're right, you're fucking  _ right _ , Lucretia." Now his tears were back. " _ Gods _ , you stupid humans and your stupid tiny lifespans, fuck! And you had to go and give twenty years away!"

"I didn't do it  _ by choice-- _ "

"I know! Shut up!"

"And I got far more time than most humans get anyway. I am a hundred and thirty-four, Taako, did you know that?"

"Shut  _ up _ !" he shouted. "Shut up, shut up, stop  _ fucking talking _ before I--" But he had already broken down sobbing. He looked completely miserable.

Lucretia regretted pushing her point so far. She really hadn't intended to upset him so much, just remind him that their time wasn't unlimited anymore. As he cried and cried with his head in his hands, hunched over the kitchen table, she wanted desperately to be able to reassure him like she used to do, back before she had ruined their friendship. But she knew that he wouldn't want that now. It would be presumptuous and a complete overstepping of boundaries. Still, she had to clench her fists and avert her eyes to resist going to him and trying to comfort him.

His sobs died down after a while as he wore himself out. A few times, he tried to calm down and speak, but he couldn't seem to make himself stop crying until he was completely exhausted with his head down on the table. "Damn it," he whispered. "Fuck. Okay." He finally raised his head, wiping his eyes. "I'll...okay." Then he stood up and stumbled towards the door.

"Taako? Are you leaving? It's still raining, please don't walk out into the rain without a coat again," Lucretia said, protective instincts rising up too strongly to stay silent.

"Just getting Mags."

She nodded and waited. It took a few minutes for Taako to return with Magnus in tow. Lucretia wondered what they had been talking about. Neither of them said anything as they came into the kitchen, though. Taako just sat down in his chair again and put his head down. Magnus lingered with his hand on the elf's shoulder for a moment before moving to Lucretia. "You okay?" he asked softly.

"I think so." Gratefully, she leaned her head against his hand as he cupped it around her cheek. "Or at least, I will be."

"Gotcha. Lup is on her way, she's gonna bring Taako home." Magnus flinched as a rift opened and Lup stepped into the kitchen. He had once confessed to Lucretia that he was never going to get used to that.

"Hey," Lup greeted. She sounded a bit subdued. "Um, Taako--" He jumped to his feet and flung himself into her arms. Clearly relieved that he wasn't angry at her, she hugged him tightly. "Gotcha, Koko. Gotcha. Can I bring you home?"

"Yeah," he said, muffled into her shoulder. "Oh, hold on--" Then he pulled back and turned to Lucretia. There was a moment of silence before he told her, "Next time Magnus comes to stay for a few days...come with him."

"Alright," Lucretia agreed, too surprised to question it.

Taako didn't say anything else, just went back to Lup and let her take him in her arms again. Lup gave a little wave to Magnus and Lucretia, and then the twins were gone through another rift.

"So...what was all that?" Magnus asked.

"I'm not entirely sure, but I  _ think  _ it was Taako's way of telling me that he still cares about me," Lucretia said.

"Well, that's great! Um, why was he crying?"

Lucretia was gazing at the empty chair where Taako had been sitting. "He was coming to terms with my mortality. Probably yours, too. I reminded him that there was a time limit if he was ever really planning on moving forward--that if he waited for too long, it would be too late for me," she explained.

Magnus dropped down into the chair next to her. "Oh. Oh, wow."

"Sometimes, I think that death is a bit of an abstract concept to us. Especially death like this, natural death. He understood that I could have died because of the poison dart, but it was like he had forgotten that even if I'm never attacked again, I'm still going to die eventually. And that eventuality isn't so far away, particularly for an elf." Lucretia took Magnus's hand, seeing that this conversation was difficult for him. "Magnus, it's alright. Let's talk about something else, hm? When were you planning on next visiting everyone?"

"Um, next weekend," answered Magnus. "Are you gonna come?"

"Taako asked me to. I'm not sure I have a choice, really." She smiled. "But even if I did, I would still go."

"Everyone will be so happy to see you," said Magnus.

"I'll be happy to see them as well. I don't think I've seen Barry in a month, and Angus hasn't visited in a few weeks, either."

"And you think you'll be okay there?"

Lucretia nodded slowly. "I think so, yes. Or at least, I'm starting to."


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I debated whether to split the next bit into three chapters or not, and I decided that yes, I was gonna split it. Apologies for unresolved stuff in this chapter, a big flashback happens in the middle of the scene and it's long enough to be its own chapter, so...three parts! Also, that violence warning comes into play in this chapter more heavily. <3 ~Martin

Taako was a little on edge. Lucretia had been staying at the house more and more frequently over the past few months. That was fine. He had told her it was fine and it  _ was _ , really, it was. But Lup, Barry, and Kravitz were all working, and Magnus had gone out to do something, and that left him alone with Lucretia. That hadn't happened since their conversation at Raven's Roost, and even then, Magnus had only been in his workshop right next to the house.

He decided to stay in the kitchen. It was a communal enough space that if Lucretia  _ really _ wanted to, she could be in the same room as him. But it was also  _ his _ space and less open than the living room. She probably wouldn't intrude while he was in there unless she actually needed something.

About two hours later, Taako heard Lucretia talking frantically in the other room. "And this is happening  _ where _ ? Carey? Answer me, please!"

A bit concerned, Taako stepped out into the hallway. "Lucretia? Everything good?"

He was almost knocked over as she rushed past him. "I'm sorry, Taako, I have to go!"

"Whoa! Hey, nuh-uh, hold up!" He grabbed her arm. "What's going on?"

"I just received a message from Carey--she says that the community the Bureau has been rebuilding about a mile outside the city is under attack," Lucretia explained hurriedly.

"Is she there?"

"I'm not sure, but I can't get back in contact with the frequency she was using, so I have to assume she is. I didn’t think we were even moving anyone in until next Tuesday!"

"And you're just going? Just like that?"

Lucretia pulled her arm away. "I'm the closest Bureau member. Others are on their way."

"Right. I'm going with you," he decided. The near-constant pain in his legs was the best it had been in months--he could afford an outing. Taako felt his pocket to make sure he had his wand. "Let's go."

"Are you s--"

Taako was already heading out the door. "Hell yeah, Luce, it's been too long since I've been in a good scuffle. Let's go fucking get them."

The community Lucretia had mentioned was a halfling village which had been completely destroyed by the Hunger. The Bureau had given all of the survivors refuge in town until they could get a group together to begin rebuilding. It lay in the foothills outside the city and it took them about twenty minutes to get there because of the slightly difficult terrain. The two of them remained concealed in a grove of trees near the edge of the valley where the village was. Taako frowned. He had expected to hear the sounds of a skirmish, but there was only silence apart from a small bird chirping above his head.

“Stay here,” Lucretia said, giving him a worried look. She started out of the trees, pointing her wand out in front of her.

“Like hell I’m staying here,” Taako muttered. He trailed a few steps behind her. The village was empty, and a few houses were still only partially constructed. Although nobody was around, there was no indication that any sort of attack had happened. Taako looked around warily. “And you’re sure that Carey said the attack was  _ here _ ?”

Lucretia nodded. “I’m fairly sure...let me try contacting her again.” She fiddled with her stone of farspeech. “Carey?”

The dragonborn’s voice crackled calmly through the stone. “‘Sup, Director?”

“Carey. Did you call me a little while ago about an attack happening at that halfling village we’re finishing construction on?” Lucretia asked.

“Um...no? Is there an attack? But nobody’s even there.”

“Don’t worry about it, everything is fine.” Lucretia put the stone away. “I believe I’ve been mislead, Taako. My apologies for dragging you out all this way.”

“If Carey didn’t call you, who did?” Taako said suspiciously.

“I’m not sure. However, I think it would be in our best interests to leave here as soon as possible before investigating further.” Lucretia motioned for Taako to start heading back to the trees.

After making sure that she was following right behind him, Taako turned and half-walked, half-ran to the edge of the valley. Three steps into the trees, he had just enough time to realize  _ holy shit, this was probably a trap _ before there was a commotion behind him. Something hit him in the back hard enough to knock him flat onto the ground. It hurt, too. His ears were ringing from the impact and he struggled to catch his breath. He pushed himself into a sitting position and blinked the dirt away from his eyelashes so he could see again.

Then he heard a scream.

In a split second, he was on his feet again, his wand outstretched. A shimmery, opaque bubble surrounded him. It was just tall enough that he could stand up inside it, and it didn’t budge when he tried to blast it away. “Lucretia!” he shouted. “Get rid of the stupid  _ fucking shield _ so I can help you!”

Another horrible, pained scream answered him. There were other noises, too. Someone was shouting in a language that Taako couldn’t even identify. A dull thud of someone falling to the ground was followed shortly by the groan of someone who didn’t have the willpower to scream again. The bubble rippled as someone pounded on it with a metal weapon, but it didn’t burst. There was an angry mutter in the same unfamiliar language, and the footsteps of several people walking away.

Taako fell to his knees, trying to see through the shield. “Lucretia,” he said, his voice shaking. “Are you okay? Answer me. Answer me, Lucy! Fucking answer me! Take down the shield!”

After a full minute of no response, the shield collapsed around him. He lurched forward and was at Lucretia’s side. She was curled up on her side. Thankfully, she was still breathing. Her eyes were mostly closed. The front of her dress was soaked in blood, and more blood dripped from the corner of her mouth.

“ _ Shit _ , Lucy!” Taako tore off his jacket and pressed it against where most of the blood seemed to be coming from. That seemed to wake her up, which was good. The downside was that she let out an agonized wail, a sound that Taako had never heard her make and never, ever wanted to hear again. “I’m sorry, but I’ve gotta keep all the blood inside where it’s supposed to be, ‘kay?”

Her eyelids started drifting closed again.

“No! No, no, no, look at me! Look at me, Lucretia!” Taako reached into his pocket and realized he had left his stone of farspeech at home. “Where did your--” He saw it. It was on the ground a few feet away. It was shattered. “Shit!”

“My…” Lucretia coughed. Some blood spattered onto the ground. “My bag…”

He grabbed her bag and rifled through it. “What am I look--ah! Thank  _ fuck _ , Lucy.” There were two small bottles of healing potion at the bottom of the bag.

“Not enough…”

“Shush, no talking.” Taako slipped his hand under her head and propped her up just enough that she could swallow. She started coughing again before the bottle could even touch her lips. “No, no...easy, easy, Luce. C’mon, breathe through it.”  _ She’s losing way too much blood. What if those...assassins come back? _ “You need to breathe through it, Lucretia, I’m not asking nicely this time. Drink this.”

She managed to get the first bottle down. After a few seconds, there was less of an awful rattle in her breath. “Not enough,” she repeated.

“I know, I know,” he replied. He pulled his now blood-stained jacket away from her stomach and dared to look at the wounds. It was… “I’ve seen worse. Okay, time for the second one. Gotta keep breathing, Luce.” The second bottle was easier to get her to drink than the first. Taako watched as the bleeding slowed and parts of the wound knitted back together. There was still a long, deep gash across her middle, but it didn’t extend so far into her body that anything essential was going to stop working immediately anymore. “That’s a lot better,” he said, relieved.

Lucretia was more alert now. She started to say something before breaking off with a cry of pain. Her eyes squeezed shut and she curled in on herself, panting and groaning.

“Lucy? Lucretia, we need to get out of here. Can you walk?”

The answer was clearly no. She let out another scream when Taako tried to pick her up. It sent a cold chill through Taako’s blood. Over a hundred years he had known Lucretia, and not  _ once _ before today had he ever heard her scream in pain.

"It won't get better until I can get you out of here," he told her. He gritted his teeth and took a few steps further into the woods.

"Taako," she choked out. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I can't. Put me down. Please, please…"

He was trembling too much to continue walking, anyway. He laid her gently onto the ground and knelt next to her. "It's not safe. What if they come back?"

Lucretia was somehow still holding onto her wand. She flicked it. A soft blue shield sprang up around them. "We're safe," she whispered. "For a while."

"Except for the fact that you're still bleeding out, sure!" Taako was nearing the point of hysterics. He could barely breathe. "Hey, hey, Lucretia? If you die before I manage to move on from the shit you did to me, I'll never forgive you."

She let out a weak chuckle. "Either way, then?"

"Shut up, you know what I meant." Taako flinched as she gasped and arched her back slightly. "Fuck, Luce! I'm not Merle, I don't know any fucking healing magic. I'd go get help, but I'm not leaving you alone like this."

"Thank you." More pained noises escaped her. "I'd prefer...not to be alone…"

Taako grabbed her hand. "I'm here." He was hardly thinking about his anger towards her, how much he blamed her for all of the pain he had gone through recently. Just for this moment, she was just his friend again--his  _ family _ \-- and she was in pain. She might even be dying. And she was scared. "Lucretia, stay with me."

Lucretia gripped his hand tightly. "I truly am trying."

"I know, I know. Oh--" He bit his lip as yet another soft scream tore out of her. "Shit, it must be real bad. I've never...you've never…"

"S-so much for…" She breathed shallowly for a moment and then continued. "For the highest...pain t-tolerance of any human you've ever m-met, hm?"

The memory of the time Taako had told her that flooded into his mind as he shushed her and tucked her hair back behind her ear. "You're doing just fine," he murmured, like he had done all the way back then.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a flashback to Stolen Century--I place it somewhere in the cycles right after the Beach Year, so like 22-25ish. This one doesn't have violence, but there are descriptions of pretty severe injuries.

* * *

Lup was laughing. "Look! Hey, Lucy, Taako, look, I found a throne!" She had climbed up a gnarled tree on the mountainside they were exploring and found a perfect seat grown right in between two branches. Her legs were swinging joyfully as she sat.

"Be careful up there," Lucretia warned.

"Take it easy, Lup's never fallen out of a tree in her life," Taako said breezily, sitting down on a nearby stone. He had twisted his ankle about an hour ago, and it still hurt a little to walk. They had turned back and were heading down towards the ship, but there was still a fair way to go.

"And I'm not about to start now," Lup agreed.

"Alright, well…" Lucretia glanced around. "I wanted to get another sketch of those red flowers. Mind if I go on ahead? We're almost back to where I saw the first big patch on our way up."

"Go for it," Lup said. "We'll catch up in a bit."

Taako leaned back on the rock, enjoying the sunlight and his sister's company. He had about ten minutes of the calm, quiet rest when they heard a surprised yelp and a crash from around the corner up ahead.

"Lucretia?" Lup called. "Are you okay?" She was already jumping down from the tree and rushing down the path, giving Taako a hand up as she ran.

There was no answer. The twins reached the patch of red wildflowers and looked around. Lucretia was nowhere to be seen. "Lucy?" Taako said nervously. "Where'd ya go?"

Finally, they got a response. "I'm...down here…" It came from over the edge of the cliff on the other side of the patch of flowers. "The stone...gave out underneath me, I…"

Lup got down on her hands and knees to move closer to the edge.

"Careful," Taako blurted out.

"I know. Lucy? I can't see you down there. Where are you?"

"Under the overhang. I hit a slope and fell into a bit of a trench." Lucretia sounded odd. There was a strain to her voice that Taako hadn't ever heard before. "I...I dropped my notebook."

"Don't worry about that. Are you hurt?" Lup asked. She must have noticed the same thing that Taako had.

There was a long pause. "Yes," Lucretia admitted.

Lup looked back at Taako anxiously. "How bad, honey?"

"It's...I'm not in any danger of dying immediately," Lucretia said. "But it isn't...good."

"Can you stand up?" Lup checked.

A sharp gasp was all the reply she got for a little while. "No," she stated. "I'm sorry."

Taako crawled forward to join them. He could see where the ground had given way and plummeted Lucretia down. "We gotta getcha out of there. Lucy, how 'bout if I cast Levitate? I could have you out of there in no time."

"Alright," Lucretia agreed. She still sounded strained. "Please be careful?"

"You got it." Taako concentrated, and floated Lucretia up to the top of the cliff. He had to close his eyes to keep the spell going perfectly, so he didn't see Lucretia at first. He just heard Lup's gasp of horror and knew that it had to be bad. Taako didn't really want to open his eyes, but he had to in order to let the spell go and set Lucretia softly onto the ground. He barely held back his own horrified noise when he saw her laying there.

Both of Lucretia's legs were clearly broken. One of them was twisted underneath her and bleeding. She had a long scrape on the side of her face that continued down her arm. Though she was taking calm, deliberate breaths, a few tears had slid down her cheeks.

"It...isn't good?" Lup repeated, dumbfounded. "Lucy, honey, this is so much further than not good that it isn't even funny. How the fuck are you even conscious?"

"I'm alright," she insisted.

Taako cast Levitate again and carefully moved Lucretia further from the cliff edge. "Lup, Lucy, do you have any healing potions? Because I did not bring any."

Lup shook her head. Her hands fluttered over Lucretia's form helplessly before settling on her shoulders. "I don't have anything."

"I only brought my sketchbook. I'll be alright." Lucretia looked like she believed it, too.

"I can see your bone sticking out of your leg, Lucretia," Taako stated. "You need help, and not the kind we can give. Lup, go back to the ship and get Merle--I can't run on this stupid ankle. I'll stay with Lucy."

"It'll take at least two hours to get down to the ship, and longer to get back up," Lup said doubtfully.

Taako looked at her with a dead-serious expression. "We haven't got another choice, Lulu."

Reluctantly, she nodded. She stroked Lucretia's forehead. "You hang on, mmkay, girl? I'll be back." Lup removed her cloak and handed it to Taako. "In case we don't get back before nightfall. It gets cold on this planet."

"I've got it, sis. Go. See you in a bit." He watched her head down the mountain for a minute before turning back to Lucretia. "What can I do to help, Luce?"

"Truthfully, both of my legs should get splinted. But if you don't know how, it might do more harm than good," she replied.

Taako scoffed gently. "Ha, you think I don't know how to make a splint? Lulu and I got into scrapes all the time when we were younger. I could splint a broken limb with my eyes closed." He neglected to mention that he had only ever splinted fingers and the occasional wrist, but how different could it be?

"Mm, please don't. I'd prefer that you keep your eyes open. I know how as well, I can tell you if you're doing something wrong." Sure enough, she guided him through the process as he found long branches from nearby trees to use as the splints and strips of cloth from the extra shirt in Taako's bag to wrap them in. He tried to convince her to hold onto something, but she refused. "I'm fine."

"You've got the highest pain tolerance of any human I've ever met," he said, trying to lighten the mood. "When Magnus broke his pinky back a couple of cycles ago, he was crying like a baby."

She gave him a tight smile. "Not reacting doesn't mean that I don't feel it, Taako."

Taako finished the splints and went back up to Lucretia's head. He touched her forehead. She was cold and her skin was damp. When he took her hand, it was trembling. "You're doing just fine," he told her softly. "Just fine, Lucy."

Lucretia shook her head. "Taako?"

"Yeah, Luce. I'm here."

"I'm going into shock." She sounded remarkably calm. "You need to keep me warm and breathing, please."

Quickly, he tucked Lup's robe around her. He cast Prestidigitation on the material so it would be warm. That seemed to help. "There, there you go. It's alright, you're gonna be okay."

"Taako, you don't have to," she mumbled. "I know I might not make it. I'm bleeding a lot, even with the splint and bandages."

He squeezed her hand. "I'm not gonna let you die, Creesha."

"There's a...first time for everything." Her breathing was getting shallower. "What's it like?"

Taako didn't like the thought of Lucretia dying. It hadn't happened before, and she sounded a little bit frightened. "The dying part sucks," he said honestly. "Your mind knows that you're gonna come back, but your body fights it to the very last second. It's not fun. But then you wake up. You'd be holding onto Maggi like you always are. And he would hug you so tight. But not this time, 'kay? Stay with me."

For a moment, her trembling got worse. Then she relaxed and nodded. Another tear slipped down her cheek. "I'll try."

"That's it, there you go." He decided to just slide underneath the robe with her and hold her against his chest to offer any warmth and reassurance that he could. "You just stay with me, bubbelah."

Lucretia breathed slowly and deeply, keeping herself calm. "What does that mean?" she wondered.

"Hm?"

"Bubbelah. I've heard you call Lup that sometimes, but I had never heard it before I met you. And you've never used it for me before."

"Huh." Taako paused. "I guess I haven't. It's something our aunt used to call us. She didn't usually speak Elvish, she had another language. I don't even know what it's called. But me 'n Lup picked up some of it and I guess we never lost it."

"Does it mean something? Or is it just a pet name with no real meaning?" asked Lucretia.

"Far as I could tell, it comes from the word for grandma." Taako chuckled. "'Little grandma', it means. It's just a pet name like honey or darling, but you use it for family members, younger ones and siblings."

Lucretia was quiet for a little while. "I think that's sweet."

"Yeah, it's…" Taako shrugged and pulled her just a little closer. "Anyway. You want me to keep talking?"

"Please? It...it helps me stay...centered."

"Sure thing, Lucy." Taako took another brief pause before starting to tell her about all of the other words from their aunt's language that he could remember. Lucretia was fascinated by it. She asked question after question.

"Taako? Will you repeat all of this someday? I...I'd love to write it down, if you're alright with that," she said after about two hours of talking.

"Absolutely, bubbelah. If you promise to keep breathing, yeah?"

"Doing my best. It isn't very easy right now." Sure enough, she was struggling to take a full breath.

Worried, Taako sat up. He gently pulled her into a sitting position as well, and slid behind her so she was resting against his chest. "Let's see if we can do something about that, alright? Here, sitting up should help some. Deep breaths, now."

"If I pass out, Taako, will I die?" she asked shakily.

"I don't know. I don't know, so please try to stay with me. Stay with me." He rubbed her back in wide, firm circles in the hope that it would help her keep breathing. The sun was just starting to sink towards the horizon. "Stay with me, Lucy."

"I'm sorry, I...I'm sorry…" She slumped back against him. Her eyes were closed, but she continued to breathe.

"Lucretia? Come back, please. Can you hear me? I'm just gonna keep talking, follow my voice back if you can. I'm not giving up yet, Lucy. I'm not giving up." Taako kept rubbing her back, and she kept breathing. In fact, her breathing seemed to ease up and become steadier. "Okay. Okay, maybe the passing out is just 'cause you're in so much pain. In that case, it might be a good thing? Just keep breathing. You've got this. I'm right here." He talked and talked until he was almost hoarse and the sky was dark. Then Lucretia whimpered quietly. "Lucy? Are you awake?"

"...kind of…"

"Yes, good, okay. Stay with me, alright? Please stay with me this time," Taako implored.

"I'm sorry. How long was I out?"

"Like two hours, Luce. I'm just fucking glad you're still alive. Keep on breathing for me. They should be here soon, I think. Not too much longer. And then you're gonna be alright, Lucy, you're gonna be okay." He smoothed her hair down as she leaned her head back against his shoulder. "But ya gotta stay awake this time, 'kay? I was lonely without you, y'know."

A lot of tears were escaping her eyes now. "I'm sorry," she repeated weakly.

"No, shhh, shh. It's okay, stop that apologizing. Come on, now, let's talk about something else. Who d'you think is gonna come traipsing up that mountain to rescue us?" Taako asked.

"I think Lup will bring Merle and Magnus," Lucretia replied, sounding grateful for the distraction. "Barry and Davenport will stay behind with the ship."

"That makes sense. Hey, how about this? When we get back to the ship, I'll make you anything you want to eat. How does that sound? But you have to stay with me, or I rescind the offer." The warmth of the robe was fading again. He heated it back up and tucked it around her more tightly. "What do you want me to make?"

"I don't know, I...I feel a little nauseous right now. Not sure if I can think about food," she said apologetically.

"Don't worry about it, then. We'll figure it out later. Oh, Lucy. You need to have some water." He had a bottle in his bag and he took it out and handed it to her. "Just when you can. Don't need you getting dehydrated on top of everything else."

She took a few small sips. "I'm cold," she mumbled.

"The cloak is as warm as I can get it. Here." Taako took off his own jacket and helped her put it on. Then he took off his cloak, heated it, and wrapped it around her as well. That left him shivering, but he didn't care. "Snuggle back against me, Creesh. I'm trying to keep you as comfy as I can."

"That's a little better, but I'm just...Taako, I'm so tired…"

"Yeah, pain will do that to you. Stay awake if you can. I'll help." As the time passed, it became more and more difficult to keep her talking. Her sentences would fade away in the middle, and it took a lot of prompting and hand-squeezing to get her to finish her thoughts. Please hurry, he thought, trying desperately to send a message to Lup.

Lucretia stopped answering him. She was still awake--her constant incoherent mumbling and uncomfortable shifting told him that. Taako realized with a pang of worry that he was no longer cold. Lucretia was radiating heat now. When he touched her forehead, it was like putting his hand over a hot stove. When had she developed a fever?

"Lucy? Lucy, come back to me. C'mon, bubbelah, you can do it. Whatever this is, don't you dare let it win before Merle gets here. You're stronger than that. Please, Luce, please. Squeeze my hand if you can hear me," Taako pleaded. She gave his hand the faintest of squeezes. "That's it, stay with me. Oh, please stay with me. You're gonna be okay, just keep holding on."

Suddenly, a voice rang out up the mountainside. "Taako! Lucretia!" Magnus called.

Taako forced back tears of relief. There would be time for that later. "Hurry!" he screamed. More quietly, he added, "Hear that, Lucy? Everything is gonna be okay."

Lup reached them first. "Merle and Magnus are like, two minutes behind me," she said quickly. "I'm a better climber, I ran ahead. How is she?"

"Bad," Taako confessed. "It's been all I could do to keep her conscious."

"Lucretia? Lucy, honey, look at me." Lup cupped her hands around Lucretia's face. "Oh, she's burning up. She won't even make eye contact."

"I know, she's really sick. Something must be infected. Merle had better hurry." Taako kept an anxious watch on the path up the mountain.

When Merle and Magnus arrived, Taako finally let his guard down. He leaned against Lup exhaustedly. "You did great," she whispered, petting his hair.

"I didn't do anything," he muttered in response, but he accepted the comfort all the same. 

Merle had immediately gotten to work with a plethora of healing spells. "Hey, hey, Creesha," he greeted gently. "You with us? You should be feeling a lot better now."

"Merle?"

"Yeah, kiddo, I'm here."

Lucretia tried to sit up on her own, but she was shaky. Magnus put his arm around her to hold her up. "Thank you. I...I didn't die, then?"

Merle nodded. "You didn't die, Lucretia. You're still with us. Another couple hours and I wouldn't've been able to save ya, but you're gonna be fine."

"It's night," Lucretia said with surprise. "I thought it was only going dark in my head."

"You were feverish. Yeah, it's well past sunset. We're actually gonna stay up here tonight. Magnus brought the tent. We'll head back first thing in the morning," Merle explained.

"Taako." Lucretia turned to him and reached for his hand. "Taako, thank you."

"For what, Luce?"

"Everything," she said simply.

He made a face. "Pssht."

"I know, but it helped." She tried to roll onto her knees and let out a small gasp of pain. "Merle, it still hurts."

Hurriedly, he made her lay back down. "Yeah, I know. It's gonna be sore for a couple weeks no matter how many spells I cast. Just sit tight, Creesh."

Taako scooted closer to her while Magnus set up the tent. "So, any ideas about that food? You kept going, so the offer still stands."

"What offer was that?" Lup asked curiously.

"He promised that if I stayed alive, he would make me any food I wanted when we got back to the ship," Lucretia replied.

Lup laughed. "Of course he did."

"Well?" Taako pressed.

Lucretia gave him a fond glance. "How about some cookies?"

"Any particular kind?"

She shook her head. "I've never disliked a single cookie that you've made. Surprise me."

Magnus came over to pick Lucretia up and carry her into the tent. The twins joined them, and the five of them curled up together underneath their robes and tried to fight the increasing chill in the air. Lucretia was in the center of the tent to keep her warm. Her fever hadn't completely disappeared with the healing spells, and she fell asleep quickly with her head on Magnus's arm as a pillow.

"Hey, Merle?" Taako said in a hushed voice after a little while. "Got an extra spell slot for me? I forgot to mention, I twisted my ankle earlier. It's not a big deal, I just--"

Merle was already patting his leg. The ache in Taako's ankle disappeared. "There ya go."

"Thanks." Taako felt Lup snuggle up closer beside him. "You cold, Lu?'

"No, 'm fuckin' exhausted," she mumbled. "Running up an' down a mountain twice in one day will do that."

"Oh, yeah, I bet."

"Well, shush, then. Cha'girl needs some sleep." Her arms were around his waist, and she nudged her head up under his arm so he would hold her as well. With her head on his chest, she added, "Night, Koko."

"G'night, Lup." Taako lay awake while Lup fell asleep, and as first Merle and then Magnus began to snore. The sound had irritated him for about the first ten cycles before he got used to it. Now it was almost soothing, though he would never tell them that and ribbed on them about their snoring all the time. But even with that and with Lup next to him, he couldn't fall asleep. All of the worry and distress because of Lucretia's injuries which he had pushed aside during the day to focus on helping her was hitting him now. He had never been very comfortable around blood or serious wounds despite having seen plenty in his life. The image of her twisted, bleeding legs wouldn't leave him.

Lucretia murmured something in her sleep. She was a few inches away. If Taako turned his head, some of her curls would be almost touching his nose. He reached out and touched the back of her wrist. When she didn't wake up, he took her hand. Even sleeping, her hand curled reflexively around his to give it a soft squeeze. Taako felt...better. He fell asleep in the next few minutes, reassured that his family member was now safe.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listen...the twins' aunt speaks Yiddish in this universe. It's just how it is.
> 
> Please leave a comment telling me how you feel about the story so far! <3 ~Martin


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, apologies for the last two chapters w/o any resolution. This one should be more emotionally satisfying. The flashback is over, we're back in present time. Enjoy!

"I think you know that I'm not 'just fine', Taako." Lucretia was barely keeping her eyes open.

"You better be fine, Lucretia, I'm not kidding around here. Look at me. Hey! Don't close your eyes on me, I'm a delight to look at." Taako patted her cheek and picked up his jacket again. "Okay. I have to stop the bleeding, Lucretia. It's gonna feel bad, I won't lie."

She nodded.

"You just need to get stable enough so I can get you back to the city and find a healer," he told her as he started putting pressure on the wound. "You're going to be  _ fine _ ."

"If I'm not--"

"You will be!"

"If I'm  _ not _ ," she insisted forcefully, "please tell everyone that I love them."

Taako felt sick. "Lucretia? I will, but you're going to be fine. I need you to stop talking like that, okay?  _ I _ need that."

"A-alright." She pressed her head back against the ground, clenching her fists as he continued to put pressure on the injury.

After about ten minutes of that, Taako carefully pulled the jacket away. The bleeding had stopped, as far as he could tell. "Can we try to move again?" he asked.

Lucretia seemed out of it. "What?"

"Luce, focus. Can I pick you up? We gotta get moving."

"...bleeding will start again," she pointed out.

Taako knew that she was right, but he didn’t like it. “Do you have any ideas, then? Because I’m not ready to let you just die.”

She mumbled something that he couldn’t quite make out.

“What?”

“I think...someone will come…” Lucretia’s eyes started to close.

“No! Damn it, Lucy, stay awake! Squeeze my hand, c’mon, hold onto me. Don’t you dare let go!” Taako almost choked on his words as he forced back tears. “Who’s gonna come? What do you mean? Hey,  _ talk _ to me!”

“Carey will...she knows we’re here.”

_ That’s true _ . A tiny spark of hope flickered in Taako’s heart. “Yeah! You’re right, I’m sure she’d figure out that something is up. So you better keep fucking breathing until they get here, okay? Look at me, Lucretia!”

She reached up and brushed the back of her hand against his cheek. “I won’t go anywhere,” she breathed. “I won’t betray you like that again.”

The tears sprang free despite Taako’s best efforts. He fell to lie on the ground beside her and tugged her into a loose embrace, careful not to move her in a way that might hurt. “You better not,” he managed. He felt her stroke his hair softly, and he cried harder. “St-stay with me, please…”

The minutes passed agonizingly slowly. Taako felt every single breath that Lucretia took and was terrified each time that it would be her last. But she did as she had promised, and kept breathing. Even when she slipped into a state of semi-consciousness, she kept breathing. She would squeeze his hand every time he asked her to confirm that she was still with him.

Taako would later learn that there was less than an hour between Lucretia’s call to Carey and when Magnus, Lup, and Merle arrived. At the time, it felt more like weeks. When he heard them calling, he shook Lucretia’s shoulder and told her to lower the shield. She barely acknowledged him, but the shield disappeared and then their family was there.

Merle made short work of Lucretia’s wounds, focusing so hard on the healing spells that he didn’t say a single word to anyone else. A soft green glow extended from his soulwood arm. Magnus kept guard over them. Although his face was streaked with tears, the fierceness with which he held his axe and stood over his family practically  _ dared _ anyone who could see him to try and attack them.

And Taako was just letting Lup hold him. He barely even heard when Merle said that Lucretia was going to make it because he was shaking with exhausted sobs. Lup stroked his back. "It's alright, Koko, everything's gonna be alright," she murmured. "I've gotcha, and Merle's got Lucy. Magnus is protecting all of us. Nothing's gonna happen now, it's all okay."

Everything was a blur for a while. When Taako snapped back into the present, he was laying in bed in clothes no longer stained with Lucretia's blood. He had a pounding headache from stress and from crying so much. A blanket was draped over him. It was probably more for comfort than for warmth.

Lup was holding his hand, rubbing circles into his palm. She saw Taako look up at her with dazed confusion. "Oh, hey, bro. How are you feeling?"

"What, um, what happened?"

"You just kinda...checked out, Taako. For like an hour. I wasn't even sure you were hearing us. You with me?" she made sure.

"Think so." His heart skipped a beat. "Lucretia?"

"Is going to be fine," soothed Lup. "She's gonna be fine. Magnus and Merle are with her. Last I heard, she hadn't woken up yet, but that was half an hour ago. Taako, honey, can you tell me what happened?"

Taako told her everything. Lup's expression went from concerned to horrified to furious and then sad. "She thought she wasn't gonna make it at some points. I could barely keep her awake," Taako said.

"You did really good, Taako." She sniffled. "It's okay, she's gonna be fine."

"Will you go check on her?" Taako requested.

"I...I don't wanna leave you alone, Koko," Lup said apologetically. "We're gonna have everyone come home, but Barry and Krav won't be back for another few hours. We, um, haven't told Angus yet because we called Lucas and he said that Ango has a test today and we figured...better to tell him after the test. So we'll get him in a few hours."

Taako just looked at her. "Will you go check on her?" he repeated.

Lup caved. "Yeah, 'course, pumpkin. You wanna stay here, or come with to see for yourself that she's still breathing?"

"You go."

"I'll be right back," Lup promised. She kissed his forehead and left.

His headache was getting worse. He knew that it was just the aftereffects of adrenaline and so many tears, but that didn't make it any less unpleasant. He was definitely dehydrated. Taako hugged a pillow to his chest and closed his eyes. He wanted to cry more, but he was all out of liquid.

"She's doing okay, Taako," Lup said gently as she returned. She sat back down on the bed. "Mags said that she woke up for about two minutes, apologized six times, accepted a hug, and asked about you. He told her I was taking care of you, and she fell back asleep. Okay?"

Taako nodded slightly. "My head hurts," he mumbled.

"I've got some water here for ya. Drink slow." Lup helped him drink the water and started rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm not surprised you're not feeling so hot. I think you cried out half the water in your body, Koko. And that sort of panic can really take it out of ya."

"I still can't forgive her."

"I think we all know that, Taako. But that doesn't mean you don't still love her."

It stung, but Lup was right. For all that Taako desperately wanted to keep hating Lucretia, it was so hard to hate someone he loved. It was hard to hate someone who had once been one of his best friends, whose shoulder he had cried on countless times and who he had held through the night as she trembled with pain and fever and fear after breaking both of her legs falling off a cliff trying to sketch some flowers. It was hard to hate her when he had just been begging her to stay alive as she bled out in his arms. It was  _ Lucretia _ . He couldn't hate her.

The water Lup had given him must have replenished his tear supply, because he was crying again. Lup sighed sadly and laid down with him to provide comfort in the best way she knew how. Her presence was soothing, but Taako couldn't stop crying.

"It's gonna be okay, honey," she whispered. "We're gonna figure it all out. We'll make it turn out okay. Shh, shh, shh. Come on, Koko, please stop crying. Everything's gonna be okay, we don't need to be crying. We're just wearing ourselves out. It's going to be okay."

Taako believed her. He  _ had _ to believe her. He swallowed his sobs and let her wipe away his tears.

"That's better," murmured Lup. "There we go, that's better. Have some more water, let's sit up and we'll feel better."

He took some deep breaths and drank the rest of the water. Somehow, he  _ did _ feel better. "Lulu, I'm...gonna go bake some cookies."

Lup smiled a little. She knew exactly what he was talking about. "Want some help, or have you got it?"

"I got it. I just…" He shrugged and got out of bed to head to the kitchen. "Well, you know."

"I know," she agreed. "Come find me if you need me."

"Will do." So Taako went and baked cookies. While they were still hot out of the oven, he put some on a plate and went down the hallway to the room he knew Lucretia would be staying in. Magnus was sitting with her. "Mags, can I…"

Magnus looked just a little surprised to see him standing there. "Taako? Hey, man. What's up?"

Taako put the plate of cookies down on the bedside table. He looked at Lucretia's tired, worn face. There was still a bit of blood smudged in her hair, though the rest had been washed away. "I want to stay with her," he stated.

"Um...Taako, do you...do you actually? You haven't...you don't…"

"Please."

"Yeah, course," Magnus gave in. "She's been sleeping it off, she'll wake up every twenty minutes or so for a little while." He touched her cheek and stood up. "She keeps getting a little...um, distressed? When she wakes up. Maybe you can reassure her. I think you might have more luck than us with this particular...thing. Okay. Let us know if you need anything."

Taako sat down in the chair that Magnus had just vacated. He hesitated for a moment and then took Lucretia's hand. It was warm, which was better than it had been earlier. Lucretia murmured something in her sleep. Her head turned towards him. "Hey, Luce," he said quietly. "You're okay. Stay asleep, you're safe."

A few minutes later, her eyes fluttered open. "Taako…?" She sounded confused.

"Yeah, it's me," he told her. He squeezed her hand gently. "I had to see for myself that you didn't kick the bucket. Also I made cookies."

Lucretia tried to smile at him, but her eyes were filling with tears. "I'm sorry," she said. "Taako, I'm so--"

"No, we're not doing any more apologies," Taako said firmly.

"But--"

"Nope. None."

She sniffled and tried to wipe her eyes, but her movements were weak and she couldn't quite get her hand up all the way to her face.

Taako swiped away the tears with his thumb. "How are you feeling, anyway?" he asked. "Don't just say fine, that's bullshit, I know how much those kind of injuries can take it out of you."

"I'll be alright," she said. "I'm just so tired."

"Maggi says you've been waking up a lot. You having dreams in there?" Taako tapped her forehead softly.

"No, I don't think so." She closed her eyes.

Even though he knew she was safe now, Taako had to stifle to urge to tell her to stay awake. "Wanna try and get more rest?" he asked.

"I...I want to...talk to you," she stated.

Taako touched one finger to her hair, casting Prestidigitation to clean away the last few specks of blood. "About what, bubbelah?"

Her eyes opened again. She gazed up at him, unsurity clear in her expression. "Maybe I am dreaming. Taako, please, I...I want to know. Is this...are you...is this you moving forward?"

He paused. "I'm not sure," he said slowly. "It's...a step in that direction. Seeing you almost dying might have kick-started the whole process. And I'm not gonna like, yell at you while you're down, if that's what you mean. I'm here. And, um, I'm not going anywhere. We'll keep working on it, 'kay?"

All she could do was nod. More tears welled up.

"Oh, c'mon, Lucy, quit the waterworks," Taako said helplessly. "Hey, none of that. Hey, hey, you're gonna make cha'boy lose it again, and Lup says I already practically shriveled up like a raisin 'cause of how much I cried earlier. Lucy, please…"

But Lucretia was sobbing weakly and couldn't seem to stop. She tried to speak. No words came out.

"Can you sit up a little if I help?" Taako's voice broke. "Oh, Luce. You're killing me. Come here." He lifted her up gently into a sitting position and hugged her, letting her cry into his shoulder. "You sure know how to tug at my damn heartstrings, dontcha?"

She whispered something that sounded suspiciously like another apology.

"I swear, if you say you're sorry one more time…" Taako couldn't finish the threat. He held her tighter. "Yeah, okay. You cry if you need to. It's okay, see? I've got you. You're...you're not alone, 'kay? Okay. Yeah, I've gotcha."

Lucretia continued to sob. When she finally grew quiet, Taako could tell that she had slipped back into an unconscious sleep. He held her for another minute anyway.

"That's it, you sleep," he whispered as he laid her back down on her pillows and tucked the quilt around her before picking up her hand again. "You just rest. We'll figure it out when you're all better. It's gonna be okay."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be more plot in the next few chapters, hope you're looking forward to that! Please leave a comment letting me know what you thought! I love hearing from y'all. Love you! Stay safe, take care of yourselves. <3 ~Martin


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here comes plot!

The second attempt on her life didn't seem to dampen Lucretia's spirits much. In fact, Magnus observed that she was much more cheerful than he had seen her in a long time. There was a change in Taako as well. He no longer cast hateful glances in Lucretia's direction or left the room when she entered. 

Lucretia began splitting her time between Raven's Roost and the big house near Neverwinter. This delighted Lup, who never seemed to have any hard feelings whatsoever towards Lucretia. Barry didn't seem to mind, either. In fact, everyone seemed pretty happy with this turn of events.

It had been three months since the attack against Lucretia. Things had been quiet since then--far too quiet, in Magnus's opinion. Maybe he was getting a little paranoid, but his best friend, his sister, had almost died  _ twice _ . That was two times too many. Who could blame him if he was a little overprotective? He begged Lucretia to let him use the Bureau’s resources to investigate the organizations (they were pretty sure it was mainly occultist religious groups who believed that the apocalypse was sent by some deity or another to cleanse the planes and rebuild), but she refused to even discuss it.

So he went through other channels. He went to Kravitz, actually, sending a message to the reaper surreptitiously in the hope that nobody else would see it. He should have known that Taako would be coming along, though, because both of them were there when Magnus opened the door.

“Oh, hi, Taako,” he said. “Hey, I, uh, I wanted to talk to Kravitz about something?”

Taako, leaning a little on the cane that Magnus had carved him for the chronic pain in his legs, didn’t look swayed. “Yeah, I know. Well, are ya going to invite us in?”

Magnus sighed and looked at Kravitz, who just shrugged. “Sure, come in.” Once they were sitting comfortably in the living room, Magnus suddenly became very interested in examining the back of his hand.

“What did you need, Magnus?” Kravitz asked.

“Oh, um, just...hey, you didn’t tell anyone else about me sending for you, right?”

“Well, I told Lup,” Taako said. “And she probably told Barry.”

“Cool! Cool, great.”

“What is this about?” Kravitz reiterated. “Should we be worried?”

Magnus looked up, his expression deadly serious. “I am worried, actually. Like, really, super worried. Kept up at night worried.”  _ Maybe it’s not a bad thing that Taako came, too. He was the one with her when she got hurt last, he’s probably worried, too. _

“About Creesha,” Taako stated.

“Yeah, exactly.”

Taako frowned. “Why come to Krav, though?”

Kravitz answered before Magnus could. “You want me to keep an eye out on my bounties to make sure none of them belong to any of the groups in opposition to the Bureau, yeah?”

“Have you noticed anything?” Magnus said desperately.

But Kravitz shook his head. “I’m sorry, Magnus. Whoever these people are, they aren’t committing necromantic crimes.”

“I just…” Magnus rubbed his hand down the side of his face. “Like, you guys feel it too, right? Something bad is happening. Someone tried to kill her, twice. Or two someones each tried to kill her once, which is not any better!”

“Listen, I know I am the last person who should be giving this advice, but have you talked to Lucretia about this?” Taako said.

“So many times. She won’t let me ask anyone from the Bureau to help out, and she told me to stop worrying, but…”

Taako put his hands together in front of his face almost like he was praying, then pointed them sharply at Magnus. “My guy, she is not your boss anymore.”

Magnus stared.

“Like. You don’t have to ask for her permission? Jeez, Mags, you aren’t her employee, you’re her--you’re her  _ brother _ ,” he continued. “You think I ask Lup for permission every time I do something to save her ass? Or vice versa? Just like, just fucking do it. I don’t think Carey and Killian and Avi have any idea really how bad the situation is. Call Carey and just tell her what you wanna do. And you  _ know _ you’ve got our support, and Lup and Barry. I highly doubt Davenport would say no if you asked him to help.”

“But I don’t…” Magnus hesitated. “I don’t wanna go behind her back.”

There was an exasperated expression on Taako’s face. He raised one eyebrow in a sort of  _ really? _

“Okay, yes, I do realize the irony in that statement,” conceded Magnus. “Fair enough.”

“She literally cannot possibly claim to have the moral high ground if she gets mad at you for going behind her back to save her life,” Taako agreed.

It made Magnus a little uncomfortable to have it said like that, but, well, Taako wasn’t  _ wrong _ .

“We’ll get Ango in on this, too,” Taako kept going. “Baby detective would want to help solve this one, he adores Luce. I might have to threaten him to get him to keep his mouth closed around her if we don’t want her finding out, but he’d probably have more insight into the case than anyone else. Don’t you dare tell him I said that.”

“I won’t.” Suddenly, Magnus was very,  _ very _ glad that Taako had tagged along with Kravitz. “Hey. Thanks.”

Taako frowned. “For what, Mag?”

Magnus laughed. “Nevermind. Yeah, hey, I’ll call Carey. You get Ango in on it?”

“I will make contact with the weird child.”

“Strange way of saying you’ll call him, but okay.” Magnus took out his stone of farspeech. “And, uh, Kravitz?”

“Anything you need help with, I’m there,” Kravitz said, giving Magnus the sort of smile that meant he knew exactly how helpful he had been compared to Taako, who hadn’t even been invited, but didn’t mind too much.

“Yep.” Magnus called Carey. “Hey, Care!”

“Ay, Magno, what’s up?”

“We need your help with something. Killian and Avi, too. It’s about Lucretia, so  _ don’t _ tell her anything, but can the three of you hop down from the moon tonight and come to my place?” he requested.

“Uhhh, sure thing, bro. What’s up with the Director? Planning a surprise party or somethin’?”

“Gods, I wish,” Magnus muttered. “No, it’s...y’know how she got hurt a while ago when someone tricked her into coming out into the town y’all have been rebuilding?”

“Yeah--holy shit, did they try it again? Is she hurt? Hey, I’m gonna lightning bolt the shit out of those assholes when I get my claws on them!” Carey fumed.

“She’s not hurt!” Magnus was quick to reassure. “But we think...well, we’re pretty sure that they’re gonna try again. We want to find them and stop them before they can try.”

“Oh, you fuckin’ bet we’re gonna be all up in their business, Maggi, just let ‘em try to hurt our Director again. But we can’t tell her about it?”

“She kind of told me not to tell you guys or ask for your help. But screw that, I’m not letting her stubborn ass get killed because she doesn’t want anyone to take any risks on her behalf,” Magnus said. Taako gave him a thumbs up.

"That's the spirit!" Carey said brightly. "See ya tonight!"

"Thanks, bud." Magnus put the stone down. "Your turn," he told Taako.

Taako called Angus and got him to agree to come over as well. "I'll go home and talk to Lup and Barry in person, to make sure Luce doesn't get any hints. Someone might have to stay there if we don't want her getting suspicious, but we'll figure that out."

"Should we tell Merle?" asked Magnus. "Part of me thinks he wouldn't be cool with lying to her."

"Eh, I'll ask him, too. He'll be fine, probably."

"Thank you," Magnus said again. "Seriously, I...gods, I meant it when I said I couldn't sleep because I'm so worried."

Taako stood up and limped over to him to pat his shoulder. "Well, Lucy is hanging out with Lup at home, so you don't have to be worried about her right this second. Why don't you take a nap this afternoon before we come back to talk strategy?" he said.

"Yeah, that sounds pretty good." Magnus tried to smile. "See you tonight, Taako."

"Yeah." Taako ruffled his hair and left with Kravitz. The front door opened and closed.

Slowly, Magnus stood up and went to his bedroom. He fiddled with the knife and block of wood on his bedside table for a few minutes, letting the shavings fall into a trash basket, but couldn't decide on a shape. He put them back and laid down, kicking off his socks. Magnus buried his face in his pillow.  _ She's safe right now _ , he reminded himself.  _ We're going to make sure she stays safe. _ Holding that thought in his mind, he managed to do what Taako had suggested and take a nap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all it's been...a Time...
> 
> anyway, hope u enjoyed this chapter! i've got some more written and some stuff planned for the rest of the story. of course, i also started a new project which currently has 20,000 words written and will probably end up having Many Times that amount, so i haven't been working on this one as much as i'd like. that's okay, though, i'll find time this week! and i hope y'all stay tuned for that other story. can't say much about it yet, but it's Big, folks. stay safe and sane out there in this wacky world. love u <3


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeet

Two weeks after the initial meeting at Magnus's house, they were coming back together to share and discuss everything they had found out, this time in the house that belonged to the twins and their respective partners. The first time, Barry had elected to stay with Lucretia to keep her from getting suspicious. This time, Avi volunteered to ask her for help working late at the base on the moon. That left Taako, Lup, Barry, Kravitz, Magnus, Merle, Carey, Killian, and Angus gathered in the living room.

_ It's a big house, but it's definitely getting a little crowded, _ Taako thought to himself. Magnus had to drag in a couple more chairs from the kitchen, despite several people insisting they could sit on the floor.

When everyone was finally settled, Magnus said, "So...I know we've been keeping in touch over the past couple weeks and there hasn't been much news, but Angus called me last night to say that he had something. Ango?"

Angus nodded and cleared his throat. "Um, I've been looking into all the organizations that have declared themselves, um, anti-Lucretia and the Bureau."

"Please tell me you've been doing it from the safety of your dorm room," Barry said anxiously. "You're, like, a very small child. I don't see why nobody else has such an issue with you fighting in wars and investigating cults."

"Don't worry, sir, I'm always very safe," Angus said, but Taako could see his fingers crossed behind his back. Barry seemed not to notice, and looked relieved. "As I was saying, I've narrowed it down to four possibilities. Last night, I became almost certain that one of them in particular was behind the poison dart that almost killed Director Lucretia first. It would really help if she could tell us anything about the people who attacked her the second time. That way I could figure out if the same group did it twice, or if multiple groups are to blame."

"I'll see if I can get her to talk to me about it," Magnus said quickly. "She...she's barely mentioned it and changes the subject when I bring it up, but y'know. I've been dealing with her for a long time. I have a few tricks."

"Thank you, that would be great," said Angus.

Taako was growing impatient. He leaned forward. "Agnes, darlin', can you tell us anything about the people with the dart, or is it a secret only to be revealed at a later date?"

"Right, sorry! It's a small, highly separatist and occasionally very violent sect of lizardfolk," Angus said. "A long time ago, they had predicted the apocalypse which they thought would lead to a great cleansing, leaving only their own people to repopulate the whole world. They see us, and particularly Lucretia, as the thing which is preventing that from happening. They think if they get rid of her, it will happen like it should have."

"Why have they only tried once or possibly twice, then?" Lup wondered.

"Well, they have a really complicated calendar and astrological system which tells them when they can and can't do certain things without pretty disastrous luck," explained Angus.

Barry frowned. "Then why don't we just look at their calendar and see if the second attack lines up with a good luck day? And we might be able to predict further attacks, too."

Looking crestfallen, Angus said, "I thought about that, too. But the calendar is constantly changing based on stuff like weather and unpredictable comets and meteor showers, and only their diviners have all of the information about past events. No matter how hard I tried to keep looking into it, I just couldn't find anything. I'm sorry."

"That's okay, Angus," Magnus assured him. "It's still more to go on than we had yesterday."

"What about the other organizations, though? Worth lookin' into or nah?" Carey asked.

"Absolutely worth looking into. There's a similar apocalypse-and-rebirth cult centered around the goddess Lathander who hates the Bureau as well and basically sees us as a terrorist group. I haven't found many records on whether or not they have violent tendencies, but other, less extreme followers of Lathander are almost all very peaceful and are more into things like the cycles of the seasons than anything, um, apocalyptic," Angus said.

"You mentioned four, though, kid," Merle pointed out. "I can count. That was two. What about the other two?"

Angus kind of winced. "They're a little more...touchy of a subject. Sorry, sir, I wasn't really eager to talk about them. But I will. They mostly consist of people who...um, who were injured or experienced great losses in the Hunger's attack. They blame Lucretia for their suffering, and they think that if she...if she had just shared all of the information with the whole world sooner, um…"

"We would have been better prepared," Taako finished for him. His stomach was clenched with some sort of anger--towards whom, he wasn't entirely sure.

"Yeah," Angus said quietly.

Taako bit back the next words that threatened to come out, which would have been,  _ I don't know that I disagree with them. _ Lup knew, though. She pressed her hand against his back subtly.

"I don't know much else about them, because they're pretty secretive and off-the-grid, but the rumor is that they both started as, um, support groups," Angus said. "And some very angry people must have met and gotten even angrier with the knowledge of other like-minded folks."

"So we've got...two creepy apocalypse cults, one of which definitely tried to kill her, and two revenge-oriented groups," Magnus summarized. If he had been shaken by the latter, he wasn't showing it. "What's stopping me from going and attacking the lizardfolk group right now?"

"Oh, please don't do that, sir, you would almost definitely be killed," Angus begged.

"When has that ever stopped him?" Taako muttered.

Magnus gestured towards Taako appreciatively.

"Oh, no, that was not an encouragement. The exact opposite, in fact, my man," said Taako. "This time, Magnus is good out here."

"Yeah, I'm with Taako on this one, bud," Carey said. "Way too risky. Don't even think about going on your own, either, I will kick your ass."

"I know you will," sighed Magnus.

"I am in favor of  _ not _ running out and killing anyone," Barry stated. "At least not yet. I mean, if we figure out details and know they have a plan to hurt Lucretia again, that’s a different story. I’ll be right there with you to blow ‘em up, Mags. But planning and waiting are gonna be our friends here.”

“I’m working on getting more information about the two revenge groups,” Angus piped up. “I have a few contacts who have been helping me out; they owed me a favor.”

“Contacts? You’re like, ten!” Barry exclaimed.

“I’m almost fourteen, sir.”

Taako stifled a laugh in his hand, disguising it as a cough. He could remember, way back at the very beginning before they had even left Tusun, talking to Barry after the first meeting where all seven members of the Starblaster crew had been in the same room. Barry had been forty, and was absolutely scandalized that Magnus at nineteen and Lucretia at barely twenty-one were allowed to sign up for such a potentially dangerous mission.  _ “They’re just kids!” _ he had insisted.

Lup cast an amused glance at Taako, clearly thinking about the same thing. Some things never changed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeet
> 
> (hope ur taking care of urselves, my friends!) <3


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: this one contains some fairly graphic descriptions of serious injuries as well as the anxiety/panic about thinking a loved one might be dead. However, just to be clear, this story contains NO major character death. (I prefer to fix everything I break.) Still, read safely. <3

Magnus was carefully carving details into a leg of the new table he was making for one of his neighbors. Focused, humming softly to himself, he didn’t notice the tear in the planar veil behind him.

“Magnus!”

“Shit!” His knife slipped and sliced the pad of his thumb open as he jumped. “Ow!”

Lup grabbed his arm and pulled him upright. “We gotta go.”

“Hey, the fuck? I’m bleeding!” Magnus yelped, holding his hand up so she could see the blood dripping down his thumb.

“You’ve had worse,” she said flatly. “We gotta go.”

“Why? What happened?”

She waved her hand and another rift opened up. “It’s Lucretia. And Killian.”

Magnus’s heart dropped to his stomach. “What?”

“We gotta go,” she repeated, and yanked Magnus into the rift.

They stepped out into the wilds of the forest valleys in the mountains north of Neverwinter. Carey was crouched on the ground, trembling, large tears rolling down the scales of her face, holding Killian's feather fall duster in her claws. Merle stood next to her with his hand on her shoulder, and Taako was sitting nearby. Carey looked up as she saw Magnus and sprang towards him.

“Magnus--” she whimpered.

“Hey, hey, I’ve gotcha, Care!” He caught her and held her tight. “What  _ happened _ ?!” he demanded of everyone in earshot.

“Our bubble was shot down!” cried Carey. “We were gonna go visit Newbrook, the little genasi settlement we were helping rebuild, and something crashed into us and we were falling and--and Killian pressed her feather duster into my hands and p-pushed me out and I landed here and I s-saw the bubble keep crashing but I don’t know where it landed, oh, gods, Magnus!”

“Shhh, shhh,” he said, looking over to Lup for confirmation. She looked grim. “Lup, what are we doing?”

“Kravitz and Barry are searching. Avi’s looking down from the moon and seeing if he can track it. I’m gonna go help them search now. Soon as we find them, we bring them back here so Merle can...do what he can,” Lup said.

“I wanna search for them too!” Magnus insisted, his voice breaking. He felt Carey’s claws digging into his arms.

Lup shook her head. “Stay with Carey,” she said softly, and stepped through her rift again.

Magnus sank to the ground, letting the slight Dragonborn curl up against his chest. Carey was shaking with uncontrollable sobs. “‘s gonna be okay,” Magnus promised. “‘m here. Gonna be okay.”

“Why didn’t she hold on?!” Carey wailed. “She coulda--even if it only had enough charge for one person, maybe it still woulda...slowed us both down, even if we were hurt, we coulda survived it!”

“I know. I know, honey. Shhh, believe, me I know.” Magnus forced back a sob of his own. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

“We won’t be losing them, Maggi,” Merle said gruffly.

That did it. Magnus burst into tears. Carey burrowed her head underneath his chin. He didn’t even care about the spikey scales there that he often teased her about as he held her closer. Merle’s hand stayed on his shoulder. Eventually, Magnus felt someone bump up against his other side. Taako had come to sit with them as well. His eyes were dry, but he was staring straight ahead and he looked like his mind was somewhere far away. His knuckles were white against the dark wood of his cane.

Minutes passed that felt like hours. Hours passed that felt like days. And then, three hours after Magnus had cut his thumb, a rift opened up. Lup stepped out carrying Lucretia cradled in her arms. Behind her, Barry and Kravitz were supporting a badly injured but definitely conscious Killian.

Carey let out a scream and ran to her wife. Barry and Kravitz had to brace her so she wasn’t knocked over.

“Easy, baby,” Killian murmured. She sounded hoarse. “Ow, fuck, please be gentle.”

“I’m sorry! Oh, you’re bleeding!”

“I’m more than just bleeding, but yeah, I’ll live.”

Magnus and Merle had both rushed to Lup, who was sinking to the ground slowly. “She’s really bad, guys,” Lup said shakily. “I don’t...I don’t even know if...if Barry’s Spare the Dying was enough.”

“Give her to me,” Magnus pleaded. He held Lucretia in his lap while Merle got to work.

“Her heart is still going,” Merle said, deep in concentration. “But you’re right, she’s not fully breathing. Mags, hold her really still. Lots of stuff is broken in there, it’s gonna take time to fix right. Someone go get another one of the Bureau’s healers. I’m gonna need some help.”

“On it,” Lup said, and disappeared again.

Merle started with the gash on her head, where most of the blood was. It had soaked her white hair completely. Magnus felt a little sick. “Merle?”

“Shh.”

Falling silent, Magnus just stared at his sister’s unmoving form. More blood had drenched her light blue robes. He was grateful that he couldn’t see where it was all coming from. He shuddered.

“Keep her still,” Merle reminded him softly. His hands moved down to her shoulders, then her ribs. He whispered something that Magnus couldn’t quite hear, and there was an almost blinding greenish-gold glow that lasted only a moment.

Lucretia took a gasping, shaky breath in. Her chest rose and fell and rose again, and Merle nearly tumbled backwards with the effort of casting such a powerful spell. Taako, who had crept up without Magnus noticing, caught him.

“Work’s not done, old man,” he murmured.

“I just restarted her respiratory system, give me a second,” Merle griped. But very quickly, he was back to work. He straightened out and healed her arm, which had clearly been broken in several places.

Lup was back, and had brought a half-elf woman who Magnus recognized as a cleric of Eldath who worked for the Bureau. He couldn’t remember her name, but Merle did.

“Syvya, hey. Go fix up Killian first, then come back here. I might have run out of spell slots by then.”

“Sure thing, Merle,” she replied, and went over to Killian, who was being clung to by a still-weeping Carey.

“Merle,” Magnus finally dared to say. “Merle, is she gonna be okay?”

Merle took a long time to answer, but he finally nodded. “Think so, yeah. But these are some... _ really _ nasty injuries, Mags. She’s gonna be down for a long time.”

“Will she have…” Taako glanced down at his cane. “Will it be like me?”

“No idea. Her legs are less injured than her upper body, and she’s been unconscious, so she hasn’t been, uh, walking around on the broken bones like you did. Plus she didn’t get some of her life force sucked away on the same day. But, she’s also an older human, and you’re a young-ish elf. So maybe, but who knows?” Merle kept casting spell after spell. Lucretia’s breathing slowly began to even out.

Taako didn’t say anything else. He wandered away and pressed himself up against Kravitz, who put an arm around him.

Syvya came back after healing Killian’s injuries and helped Merle finish getting Lucretia stable. “I think that’s all we can do for her right now,” she said. She reached for the holy symbol hanging around her neck, a small glass pendant with the image of a waterfall inside it, and held onto it tightly. She murmured a quick prayer.

“Good, ‘cause that was my last spell slot.” Merle sighed. “I’m happy to let her be moved now. Let’s get her home, Mags. Can you carry her?”

“Always,” he stated, and stood up.

Kravitz opened the rift up this time. They all headed through, Magnus leading the way. He saw Kravitz point Syvya in a different direction, letting her go back to the moon base, probably to brief Avi on what had happened. Magnus kept walking until he reached the room in the house that had become Lucretia’s permanently now that she was staying there so often. He hesitated, not wanting to set her down on the bed when she was so covered in blood. He wished he could just cast Prestidigitation and be done with it.

“I’ve got it.” Suddenly, Lup was there, reaching up and touching Lucretia’s forehead. All of the blood disappeared from her hair, clothes, and skin. Lup pulled back the blankets to give Magnus room to set Lucretia down.

“Thanks, Lup,” he said, exhausted.

She hummed in acknowledgement and pushed him gently so he sat down on the bed, then cast Prestidigitation on him as well. He hadn’t realized how much of Lucretia’s blood was on him until it was gone. He wiped his eyes.

“Hey, it’s gonna be okay,” Lup told him. “I’m gonna go check on Taako, then I’ll be back. Oh, and Merle had to go lay down. All his spell slots being used up so quickly really took it out of him.” She kissed his forehead affectionately. “Wash off that cut on your thumb!” she added, and darted out of the room.

Magnus glanced at the cut. It was deep and had only mostly stopped bleeding. He put his hand on Lucretia’s cheek, not wanting to leave her alone for a second, but she seemed deeply unconscious. “Sorry, Luce, be right back,” he whispered, and rushed to the bathroom to clean out the wound and wrap it in a quick bandage.

When he returned, Lucretia had a hitch in her breathing. Her hand was opening and closing searchingly.

"Oh, Lucy, I'm sorry. I'm here." Magnus doubted that she could hear him, but he sat next to her and took both of her hands. She relaxed. "I'm here. You're safe, you're alright."

"Everyone seems to be doing okay," Lup said, leaning against the doorframe tiredly. "Carey is curled up on top of Killian, who's sleeping it off."

"Did Killian say what happened? How did they even...how did they survive that, Lup?" Magnus asked.

Lup gestured a circle with her hands. "Creesha's shields. Apparently she got one up right before they hit the ground. Both of them were unconscious until we got to them, though. Barry found them first, which is good, 'cause he knows Spare the Dying and used it on Lucretia. Killian woke up easy as soon as we started talking to her."

"Did you find the sphere? What hit them?" Magnus needed to know everything.

"We were a little preoccupied, bud. But we'll go back and check it all out, don't worry. Whoever did this won't be getting away with it." Lup came over to the bed and smoothed the blankets down around Lucretia's shoulders. "We've seen her like this too often recently," she said.

"Once is too often."

"Yeah. Yeah, I know. You probably want to keep sitting with her, yeah?" Lup checked.

Magnus just nodded.

"You're gonna need to rest at some point. Let me know. I'll take over when you need sleep." Lup pulled him into a hug. "And hey, sorry for startling you into hurting yourself earlier."

"It's fine," Magnus mumbled. The hug felt really nice. Lup rubbed his back warmly.

"Take care of her," she said, and slipped back out of the room, leaving Magnus alone with Lucretia again.

A while later, without warning, Lucretia's eyes flew open. "Carey! Killian!" she gasped, trying to sit up. She let out a cry of pain and fell back down, but kept trying to push herself upright.

"Lucy! Easy, easy, lay down! They're okay! They're both safe, and so are you!" Magnus put his hands on her shoulders, trying to hold her still. "Lucretia, look at me! It's me, it's Magnus. I'm right here. Look at me."

Lucretia struggled to breathe. "Carey and Killian?"

"Safe," Magnus promised again. "Shhh, Lucy. You were hurt real bad, you gotta stay still, sweetheart."

She groaned in pain, her eyes closing.

"I know, I know. I swear they're okay. Carey got to the ground safe with the feather duster, and your shield saved you and Killian. I saw both of them, they're just fine. They're resting, and you should be too." Magnus gently tucked a stray curl back behind her ear. His finger touched the tiny scar from the poison dart, and he almost flinched.

"You're sure they're alright?"

"Positive, Creesh."

Her breathing was still labored, much more than it had been while she was unconscious. She must have been in a lot of pain. "Magnus?" she said weakly.

"I'm right here." He laid his hand comfortingly on her upper arm. "Just breathe. Open your eyes if you can."

She did, and blinked up at him. Her eyes were damp and a little frightened.

"Hey, shhh, it's okay," Magnus murmured. "Hey, we gotta stop making a habit of this, huh, Creesha? I don't ever, ever wanna hold your nearly lifeless body again."

Her lip quivered and a tear fell from her eye. He wiped it away.

"Just sleep now, okay? You gotta rest so you can start feeling better."

"They've gone too far this time," Lucretia said, so quietly that Magnus wasn't even sure she was talking to him. "Carey and Killian could have died. We'll have to do something about it."

"You have to  _ rest _ ," Magnus insisted. He was more than a little annoyed when she tried to sit up again. "Luce, don't--"

Lucretia gave a pained gasp and collapsed. She didn’t try to move anymore. "Ah! Damn it."

"Hey, calm  _ down _ . Do I have to get someone to come in and cast Sleep on you?" Magnus scolded.

"...no."

"Then just stay still, okay? I know it has to hurt, it cannot feel great to move like that."

"It doesn't," she admitted. "It feels like the time I broke half of my ribs."

Magnus took her hand. "You shouldn't have gone inside a collapsing house during an earthquake," he replied. That had been a long time ago, somewhere around the 25th cycle. They had all been a little reckless back then.

She shrugged and winced, squeezing his hand briefly. "What's done is done."

"Yeah."

Lucretia squeezed tighter. Magnus could feel her trembling a bit.

"Hey. Are you just in pain, or are you scared?"

She hesitated. "Both."

"Well, don't be scared, okay? Everyone is safe, and I'm right here. Right here, yeah? Merle said it's gonna hurt for a while but that you're gonna be just fine. So just hold onto me and try to breathe and get some rest. We can figure out what else we need to do once you're doing a little better," Magnus told her.

"Will you stay?"

"Yeah. I'll be right here. Lup's gonna come make me go to sleep at some point, but I'll stay anyway."

She nodded. Her breathing deepened. Her grip on Magnus's hand loosened. He leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead.

"I won't let anyone hurt you again," Magnus promised in a whisper, not sure if she could hear him anymore or if she was already out. She didn't respond, so he figured it was the latter. "Never again, Lucy. I'm not gonna let this happen again."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yo sorry it's been a hot second since i've posted a chapter of this--i posted a lot of another fic 'elements of blank' and also i've written almost 40,000 words of a different fic (which will start being posted fairly soon, i promise) in the past Month, so this one took a bit of a priority dip. i'll try to have the next few chapters up more regularly! hope y'all are staying safe. look up at the sky--it's a big world out there, and all circumstances change. times are always temporary. things will get better. <3 ~Martin


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anyway *throws this out there*

Lup was laying on her back on the ground with her feet up resting against the wall, her hands behind her head. The room was dark for the benefit of the two sleeping humans on the bed (who had left no room for her, she might add). When Magnus hadn’t come to request a shift change by Lucretia’s bedside at midnight, she took matters in her own hands and came into the room to find Magnus nearly asleep where he sat. Lup hadn’t said anything, just crossed her arms and stared at him expectantly.

“‘m staying here,” he told her, like he thought she would argue.

“Cool. Me too. Lay down and get some sleep, or I  _ will _ make you.”

So Magnus had curled up next to Lucretia, still holding her hand, and fallen asleep. Lup flicked off the light and sat down on the floor. Once during the night, Barry had come wandering in, rubbing his eyes sleepily, and tried to keep her company. She kissed him and told him to go back to bed.

And there she still was late the next morning, waiting for either of them to wake up. Taako had brought her some breakfast a couple hours ago and offered to take over, but she didn’t let him. She wanted to be there when Lucretia woke up. She had a feeling that Lucy would listen to her.

From her position on the floor, she couldn’t see when Lucretia started to stir, but her keen ears twitched at a slight sound of pain.

“You awake, Luce?” Lup said softly.

“Lup?” Lucretia sounded disoriented.

Lup hopped to her feet and went over to the bed, pushing the curtains back a little so a bit of daylight came in. “Hey, honey. Don’t try to sit up, okay?” She watched as Lucretia frowned and tried to remember what happened. Then her eyes went wide and she reached out for Lup.

“Carey and Killian--”

“Easy, Luce, easy!” Lup said quickly, taking her hand.

“Magnus said they were alright, was he telling the truth? I thought maybe he had only said it to keep me from getting more upset--”

“He wasn’t lying! They’re fine, Lucy, they’re just fine,” Lup soothed. “They’re downstairs right now, safe and sound. Killian might be a bit sore for a while, but she wasn’t even as badly injured as you were, and Carey is absolutely fine.”

The fear and tension left Lucretia visibly, her shoulders slumping. “Thank you.”

Lup balanced herself carefully on the edge of the bed and glanced at Magnus, hoping their talking wasn’t waking him up. But his soft snoring hadn’t changed. “Lucy. We need to talk.”

“I...I’m sure we do. What do we need to talk about?”

“Until we can figure out who is trying to hurt you, and we stop them, you need to stay out of Bureau business,” Lup stated. It wasn’t a suggestion.

“Lup, I understand that you’re worried, and now...well, the threat has escalated to our friends. We will definitely have to be more ca--”

“No.  _ You _ need to stay out of Bureau business. This is not optional, Luce, I’m not giving you a choice. They are not targeting Carey and Killian, though I’m sure they wouldn’t be upset if they had killed them. They are targeting you, and you are going to stay safe by staying low.” Lup felt Lucretia try to pull her hand away, but didn’t let her. “Uh-uh. I actually considered having us fake your death so that they would stop trying to hurt you, but that would mean they would disappear without us being able to catch them. So before they can either disappear or strike again, we’re gonna go after them.”

“We’d need to learn  _ who _ is targeting me, and we don’t even have any leads,” Lucretia tried to argue.

Lup smiled. “That’s what you think.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means we aren’t dumb, Lucretia. We’ve been working on this for almost two months now, and we’ve got some pretty substantial evidence thanks to Angus that two specific groups have been the ones making attempts on your life. Not sure which one this was yet, but it seemed a little sophisticated for the lizardfolk apocalypse cult, so I’m betting it’s the other one.”

Lucretia looked confused, then angry. “I specifically told Magnus--”

“And as Taako told him, you aren’t his boss,” Lup pointed out. 

“You went behind my--”

Lup raised an eyebrow. “You really wanna finish that sentence?”

A flash of guilt crossed Lucretia’s face and she shook her head quietly. Lup gave her hand a gentle, reassuring squeeze. She really wasn’t trying to make Lucretia feel bad...well,  _ okay _ . She was trying to make her feel just bad enough to agree to staying safe. Lup was not above guilting her friends into doing what was best for them.

“Good! But you don’t need to worry about any of that, ‘cause you won’t be doing anything except resting for a while. How are you feeling?”

Lucretia hesitated.

“You can be honest, I’m sure it’s pretty shitty.”

“...yeah,” she agreed. “I’ve never personally been run over by a train, but I imagine it feels something like this.”

Laughing, Lup nodded. “Oh, yeah, I’m sure it does. Anything I can getcha, babe? No, scratch that, you won’t ask for anything. I’m gonna get you some tea and something to eat.”

Knowing better than to argue, Lucretia said, “Thank you, Lup.”

“Be right back!” Lup headed out into the hall and down the stairs. She was pretty sure she had heard Magnus waking up at the end there, so she wasn't worried about leaving Lucretia alone.

In the kitchen, Barry and Taako were sitting at the table with cups of tea. Lup paused to kiss Barry quickly.

"You look tired, babe, did you not get much sleep?" she asked concernedly.

"Not as much as I like to get. It's okay, I'll catch up with a nap later. Has Lucretia woken up?" Barry asked.

"Yeah, I'm gonna try to get her to eat something. Oh, also I told her that we've been looking into who's been doing this," Lup added.

"What?" Taako said. "I thought we were keeping that under wraps."

"She had to find out eventually, and I figured she'd take it easiest coming from me." Lup put a couple pieces of bread into the toaster. "How's everyone else? I haven't talked to anyone other than Lucy yet."

"Kravitz had to go to work and Merle had to go home to his kids, but he says to call him right away if we need him," Barry replied. "And Carey and Killian had some breakfast with us this morning, but then Killian needed to rest some more so they're back in the downstairs guest bedroom."

"Has anyone told the kid what happened?"

Taako sighed. "I had that super fun job last night. He's coming home this weekend to see everyone. Tried to blame himself for not detectiving fast enough, but I shut that down real quick."

"Good. I'm gonna head back to where we found them yesterday and check out the crash site," said Lup. "It's gotta be the...oh, shit, I forgot the stupid name they're calling themselves. What did Ango say it was?"

"The Jade Retribution," Barry supplied.

"Why  _ jade _ ?"

Barry shrugged.

"Anyway, them. Right? The Arajaxl lizardfolk don't have the kind of tech needed to blast down one of Avi's spheres, and we decided that the Lathander followers weren't violent enough, and the other revenge group wasn't organized enough," Lup listed.

"Yeah, sounds right. Ango sent over some info on the Jade guys," Taako said. "I, uh, haven't really wanted to read it."

"Give it here." Lup took the paper that Taako pulled out of his pocket. She started to scan over it, but the toast popped up before she could read more than a few sentences. “Hold on, I’ll be--”

Taako stood up. “You read. I’ll bring the food. Seriously, I don’t...I don’t wanna know anything about those people. Just don’t even tell me.”

“Okay,” Lup said, just a little confused. She glanced at Barry as Taako left the room with the food. “Hey, I know I’m usually the Taako-interpreter, but do you have any idea why--”

“He’s afraid he’s gonna sympathize with them too much,” Barry stated.

“Ah. Yeah, shit, okay.”

“I mean, it’s bullshit, of course. No matter how angry Taako ever was at her, he would never have actually hurt her,” added Barry.

“I mean,  _ we _ know that. I’m not sure if Taako does.” She sighed. The thought that her brother could doubt himself like that was painful.

Barry scooted his chair a little closer to her and put his head down on her shoulder so he could also read the paper she was holding. She rubbed his back absently as the two of them read in synchronicity.

The paper, written in Angus’s neat script in dark blue ink, profiled the three members of the Jade Retribution that they had managed to find any information on. They had gone off the grid a few weeks before Lucretia and Taako had been attacked.

A half-elven woman was first on the list. She had lost her husband and two of her three children in the Relic Wars. When the Hunger attacked, her third child had also been killed. She had worked for the Millers as tech support for stones of farspeech, which explained how Lucretia’s stone had been hijacked to trick her into thinking that Carey was calling for help.

Next was a dwarf who had actually been one of the people in Wonderland when Edward and Lydia were killed. The paper didn’t detail exactly what he had lost there, but it must have been substantial for him to harbor so much resentment towards Lucretia. As far as they could tell, he was a sorcerer who specialized in evocation.

Finally, the paper told of a drow who had been famous in the Underdark for their linguistic talents and illusion magic. The entire section of the Underdark where they lived had been crushed in the Hunger’s attack, trapping and either killing or seriously injuring most of their family, friends, and neighbors.

It was hard to read. Lup felt Barry shiver a little when they reached the part about Wonderland. She found his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"How are we planning on finding them if nobody has seen them in months?" Barry wondered out loud after both of them had finished reading.

“I mean, we keep looking. But I have a feeling we’re not going to find them until the next time they try something,” she replied.

“Yeah, I  _ hate _ that. Waiting for something to happen, waiting for someone to show up so we can take them down.” Barry flipped the paper over to the blank side. “I’ve spent too much of my life waiting like that.”

“I know, babe.” Lup looked up at the windows over the kitchen counter, staring out at the bright morning sunshine and the blue sky. Despite the cheerful weather, she felt a little uneasy. “But--and I’m not sure if this is really a  _ good _ thing, but it is something--I have a feeling that this time, we won’t be waiting for very long.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> listen, sometimes there's gotta be chapters that aren't very fun. the last 150 or so words of this took me two weeks to figure out and then i planned the next 3 chapters in one night (which doesn't mean they're written, just that i know what happens). hope u enjoyed this Mess! I love Lup, and that's p much the only reason i kept this chapter and didn't scrap it completely.
> 
> as always, i'd love to hear from y'all! sorry again for a lengthy time between updates (13 days feels like a lot right now). and again, i'll try to get the next one up sooner. there's some action stuff in it that's not super easy for me to write, but I'll do my best! Love you all, stay safe out there. <3 ~Martin


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it has been two months, but I hope you haven't lost interest in this story! This chapter was just incredibly hard to write. I think I'm happy with how it turned out, though! Full disclosure, I finished it about 5 minutes ago, reread it once for typos and minor edits, and now I'm putting it out into the world because I kinda feel bad for making y'all wait so long as it is. I'm making no promises for the timeline of getting the next chapter out--however, I will tentatively say sometime in the next week? It should be easier than this one. Thank you for sticking with me, and I hope this chapter doesn't make anyone too upset with me!

The sun was beating down in the dog park where Magnus was playing with one of his new puppies. Little Greta was a ball of energy, but the afternoon of training and playing had worn both of them out. “C’mere, baby, there’s a good girl,” he murmured as he attached her leash back to her collar and they started walking back to the house. He let her out into the backyard, where she immediately flopped over in the shade and fell asleep.

As always, the brief reprieve hadn’t made his anxiety over Lucretia go away completely. It had been four days since the sphere had crashed and she still could barely get out of bed. There had been no word from the Jade Retribution, and they hadn’t surfaced anything new with Angus’s investigation.

Passing Taako, who was stretched out on the couch (his legs hadn’t been doing great over the past few days--stress sometimes made it worse, though he wouldn’t admit it), Magnus said, “Hey, man. How’s it going?”

Taako threw a peace sign. “Just fabulous, my dude.”

Magnus nodded and headed up the stairs towards Lucretia’s room. The door was open. She was sitting up against some pillows, poring over a book in a language Magnus couldn’t even recognize, let alone read. She didn’t seem to notice him in the doorway for a few seconds, so occupied with the book.

After a moment, she did look up, and she smiled.

“Are you doing okay?” he asked.

“Hello to you, too. I’m fine, Magnus,” sighed Lucretia. “Or at least as fine as I was when you asked three hours ago.”

“I just have to check.”

“I know you do.” She put her book aside. “Any news?”

He shook his head.

“Well, that’s not surprising. It’s not likely they’ll attack now, when they know we have our guard--”

A strange, staticky noise came from her stone of farspeech, which was sitting on her nightstand. She looked over at it curiously.

After a second, Magnus realized that the same noise was coming from his pocket. He pulled out his own stone. “What--”

The static formed into a voice, coming from both stones at once. It was a voice Magnus didn’t recognize, but Lucretia’s eyes got a little wider.

“--Birds, if you can hear this, just know that we aren’t done. We’re here in Neverwinter, at this great little community center; I’m sure you know the one, the Bureau just finished rebuilding it last month. There’s about...fifty people here?” The voice got closer to the stone. “We just want Lucretia. That’s all. If she shows up here in the next hour, nobody else needs to get hurt. One hour, or everyone here dies.” And the static returned.

“ _ Fuck _ ,” Magnus said.

“HEY, GUYS?!” Taako shouted from downstairs. “SOMEONE JUST--”

“WE HEARD,” Magnus called back.

“HOLY FUCK!” yelled Taako.

Lucretia was starting to get out of bed.

“Don’t you  _ fucking _ dare, Lucretia,” Magnus warned instantly.

“I--”

“This isn’t a  _ debate _ ! You’re staying right fucking here.” He tuned his stone to call Merle. “Merle--”

“I heard it too,” Merle answered. “I’m on my way.”

Magnus glared at Lucretia, but she was making no further moves. He was about to call Lup, but a rift opened up and Lup, Barry, and Kravitz all stepped into the bedroom.

“Don’t even think about it!” Lup yelped first, pointing at Lucretia.

“I’m--” she tried to protest.

“Has anyone notified Lord Stirling yet?” Barry asked. “Do we know if anyone else’s stones were contacted?”

“Well, mine wasn’t,” Kravitz said.

“It wasn’t? I guess I was too preoccupied to notice,” said Lup. “So it was just the seven of us?”

“Davenport,” Magnus said. “He’s out at sea--”

Lucretia’s stone beeped, and then Davenport’s voice came over it.

“Don’t even  _ fucking _ think about it, Lucretia!” he exclaimed.

She grabbed it. “I wasn’t planning on it, Captain!” She sounded a little guilty, though. She was obviously lying.

“Send one of the reaper squad to get me, I’ll drop anchor.” Davenport sounded deadly serious. “They’re gonna be prepared for us to put up a fight, but we have to be ready for them. And we have to protect the civilians. Has anyone contacted Stirling?”

“I’m on it,” said Barry quickly. He rushed out of the room.

“I’ll come get you, Capnport,” Lup added, and she swept out through another rift.

Magnus’s heart was pounding. He hadn’t been in a real fight in a while. It made him feel uncomfortable to acknowledge it, even silently to himself, but the adrenaline rush was  _ exciting _ .

“I started a countdown as soon as the stones said ‘an hour’,” said Kravitz. He waved his hand and the countdown appeared in the air.  _ 57:42 _ .

“SHOULD I COME UP THERE?” Taako called.

Kravitz went into the hallway to answer him. “No, call the Bureau and get them to send reinforcements!”

“GOT IT! DON’T LET LUCY DO ANYTHING STUPID!”

Expecting her to look angry, or at least irritated, Magnus turned to Lucretia. Surprisingly, her expression was just calm. “You okay?”

She almost smiled. “As okay as I was five minutes ago, when you asked the last time.”

He raised his eyebrows.

“I trust you,” she added quietly. “Everything is going to be alright.”

Barry came back into the room. “Stirling’s got his militia in a perimeter around the community center. Nobody’s getting in or out except us. They’ve got folks ready to bring the hostages to safety.”

A second later, Lup returned with Davenport, who looked a little windswept. His red hair was sticking up, stiff with saltwater spray. Magnus hadn’t seen him in a couple of months. Aside from the grim look on his face, he looked like he was doing pretty good. “Do we have a plan yet?”

“These people are serious,” Magnus said. “I don’t know if they’ll be open to negotiation.”

Lucretia cleared her throat. “The person who spoke, they were definitely one of the ones who attacked Taako and I at the halfling village. They spoke a strange dialect of Undercommon then, but it was the same voice.”

“Good to know,” said Dav. “So they’ve tried at least twice to kill you--we’re working with the assumption that the same people shot down the sphere, yes?”

“Yep,” Lup replied.

Taako’s voice came over Lup’s stone of farspeech. “I’m tired of yelling, but Avi’s sending a few spheres down. Carey and Kil--”

“Wait, no, let me and Barry go get them!” Lup said. “These people destroyed one sphere, they could do it again.”

“Shit, good point. Okay, I’ll call Avi back.”

Barry and Lup left.

“What’s our time?” Davenport asked. He turned to Kravitz, whose countdown was still going.  _ 54:21 _ . “We should head out there immediately. We don’t want to get anywhere close to the time limit, or they’ll start getting desperate. And if they’re desperate, we might not be able to save everyone.”

“If it comes to that--” Lucretia began.

“ _ No _ ,” said Davenport and Magnus at the same time.

Lucretia narrowed her eyes and said, “ _ If _ it comes to that, I’m sure we can figure out a way of making them think I’m giving myself up without actually doing it.”

“It won’t come to that,” said Davenport decisively. “We’re not going to put you in danger. Kravitz, come downstairs with me. We’ll contact Stirling and get updates on the situation as we move out. Magnus, talk some sense into Lucretia and then come join us.”

Magnus winced as they left the room. “Luce…”

“Magnus, it’s fine. Come here.” Lucretia held her hands out, and Magnus took them. A slight glow surrounded him, and he recognized it as one of Lucretia’s long-lasting personal shielding spells. “It’ll transfer to four other people, too, upon contact. Give it to Merle, Davenport, Carey, and Killian. The reapers, I’m not as worried about. Actually--” Another pulse of the spell added a layer to the glow. “Give one to Taako, too.”

“He’s probably going to be staying here,” Magnus reminded her.

“Humor me.”

“Of course.” The glow faded, but Magnus could still feel the protection it offered him. “We’re going to be okay, I promise. But thank you.”

Lucretia looked him in the eyes. “I know you are. Remember that I love you, all of you, and stay safe. For my sake, at least.”

“Always, Lucy. And you promise you’ll stay here and you won’t do anything dangerous?” he pleaded.

“I promise,” she said steadily.

He had to believe her. Magnus squeezed her hands. “I’ll be back really soon,” he said, and he followed Barry and Kravitz downstairs.

“--arguing, it just sucks that I can’t go with you,” Taako was saying. “Also, be  _ safe _ , gods, this is absolutely ridiculous. We’ve earned some peace and quiet, surely? Fuck, I hate people like this. Fuck!”

“Lucretia wants you to have this,” Magnus said, patting Taako on the shoulder and passing one of the shield charges to him.

“Fucking why, it’s not like I’m going anywhere,” muttered Taako.

The door opened, and Merle came into the house. “Are we going?” he demanded.

“As soon as Lup and Barry get back with the Bureau members who are joining us on the front lines,” Davenport said.

“Lucy’s sending shields with both of you, too,” Magnus said. He gave each of them one of the charges.

“Why doesn’t Krav get one?” Taako asked.

“He’s already dead,” said Magnus with a shrug.

“That’s a good point,” conceded Taako.

Again, the front door opened, and Carey popped her head inside. “C’mon, let’s go, let’s go!” she called.

Everyone began filing out of the house, weapons in hand. Magnus lingered for a moment, looking up the stairs to where Lucretia was sitting alone. Davenport seemed to be having the same thought. “Taako, any way you could head up there and be with her?” he asked quietly.

Taako nodded and began to sit up. “I can limp my way up the stairs, yeah. Let us know what happens--I mean, you’re down to about half power without me there, I don’t know how you’ll manage without me,” he said nonchalantly. Despite his tone, Magnus knew that he hated not being able to be out on the front line with his family.

“We’ll just have to find a way. See you in a bit, Taako,” Magnus said. He headed outside, Davenport following behind. The front door shut.

A wide, shimmering rift had been slashed through the air across the front yard. Kravitz and Lup were holding it open on either side, and Killian was just disappearing into it. Magnus let Davenport go in front of him and cast one last look back at the house.

After a step through the rift, which felt like being splashed with a bucket of icy water, Magnus emerged on the other side. The Neverwinter militia surrounded an entire block of the city--they had emerged on the outside of the perimeter. A lieutenant rushed up to them and saluted Davenport, who was quickly taking charge. Magnus took the opportunity to give Carey and Killian the shield spells from Lucretia.

“What do you need from us, sir?” asked the lieutenant.

Davenport parted the line of militia members so he could peer down the street at the community center. “We need to get a look at what’s going on in there, figure out what the situation is and where the best place to send the reapers to open rifts to get the hostages out are.” He turned to Carey. “How would you feel about sneaking in under an invisibility spell?”

Carey gave him a thumbs-up. “Just what I’m made for, Cap’n!”

“You have to be fast,” he warned, glancing at Kravitz’s countdown.  _ 49:19 _ .

“I can do fast,” she replied. She grinned. “Hit me with the spell.”

Davenport reached out and touched Carey’s leg, and she disappeared.

“Ha, neat!” she said. “Okay, I’ll be right back!”

“Be careful,” Magnus said, but there was no response. She must have already run off.

“What do we do while we wait?” Killian asked, shifting her weight from foot to foot. She gazed at the community center building like she was thinking of running after her wife.

Steady as always, Davenport crossed his arms across his chest. “We just wait, Killian. Rushing anywhere without a plan is a sure way to fail.”

Magnus wondered if that was a not-so-subtle jab at him.

Sparks danced across Lup’s fingertips. “I know you’re right, Cap’n, but I  _ super _ wanna run in there and light their asses up.”

“Oh, we will,” Davenport assured her. “But we’re going to do it  _ smart _ .”

There was about a minute and a half of tense silence. Magnus kept his hand on his ax, ready for the go-ahead.

“Okay!” came Carey’s voice from thin air about ten feet in front of them. Everyone except Davenport jumped. “The doors and most of the windows are barred, some of them magically--I got in through a tiny window in the hallway, but I’m the only one of us who’d fit through that. There’s about fifty hostages, like they said, and the three people you said to look out for--a drow, a half-elf lady, and a dwarf man.” She quickly explained the layout of the inside of the community center, where the three Jade Retribution members were standing, how the hostages were arranged, and where the best places to make entry via reaper-rift were.

“Alright, Carey, you and I will go with Kravitz. We’ll create a block between the dwarf and the hostages on the eastern side of the building. Barry, take Merle. Your job is to get as many hostages to safety as quickly as you can. Killian and Magnus and Lup, you’re going to be attacking the drow and the half-elf, getting them under control and preventing them from approaching the hostages from the west.”

Killian cracked her knuckles and grabbed a bolt for her crossbow.

_ 46:39 _

“We’ll breach in three, two, one-- _ breach _ !”

Things from that point moved so quickly that Magnus was acting on pure instinct. Lup pulled him forward through a rift, launching them directly in the middle of a community center. There were screams from the hostages as Lup launched a flurry of white-hot flames towards the half-elf woman standing over them.

Magnus spun the other direction with his ax, almost making contact with the drow, who stepped back effortlessly like they had been expecting the attack.

“Come on, come on, everybody through!” cried Barry. He grabbed a young child from her terrified mother who appeared to be frozen with fear, and handed the kid to Merle. “Get them out of here!”

Merle pulled the mother to her feet, put the child back in her arms, and practically shoved them through the rift.

The drow made no effort to attack Magnus, but the calm certainty with which they met his eyes was disconcerting enough that Magnus paused before swinging his ax again.

“Oh  _ no _ , no, no, NO!”

“SHIT!”

Distracted, Magnus had to turn and see what Davenport and Lup were shouting about. He was shocked to see the half-elf standing in exactly the same position she had been in, without so much as a scorch mark. Davenport and Carey, now visible, were standing in front of the dwarf man, who wasn’t moving.

“They’re not real!” Davenport yelled. “They’re illusions!”

Killian cried out. “Magnus!”

Expecting an attack, Magnus ducked automatically. But the drow had taken a step towards him without drawing a weapon or casting a spell. They laughed. The illusions of the other two members of the Jade Retribution flickered out of existence as the last of the hostages was tugged through the rift by Barry.

The realization hit him so quickly that his entire body went numb and his knees gave out. “Lucretia--” he gasped.

Across the room, Kravitz let out a hoarse, terrified cry. “ _ Taako-- _ ”

Lup looked too stunned to react. Her mouth was open slightly in an expression of disbelief.

And the drow laughed again. “It’s too late by now,” they said as Killian grabbed them and forced them to their knees, putting the crossbow around their neck and pulling it tight against their throat. They coughed, but added, “You did--exactly--what we thought--you would.”

“Killian--Barry--stay, deal with them--call the militia in--” Davenport ordered. “Lup--”

She was already grabbing Magnus and Merle and opening up a rift home, but as the icy blackness of the space between the planes hit him, Magnus was experiencing the even colder feeling of knowing that they were probably too late.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who am I if I don't disappear for two months and return with a 3k chapter, a cliff-hanger, and a cup of iced tea? (I'm joking abt the iced tea, it's 11:45 at night and I'm about to pass out as soon as I post this chapter.)
> 
> I wish you all the best and I believe in you! These times will find their place in our lives, and we'll keep moving. <3 ~Martin


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh jeez I'm so sorry for this chapter... <3

Using his cane to push himself to his feet, Taako glanced out of the window. The door shut behind Magnus and Davenport, and he saw Lup disappear last through the rift before it knitted closed. He stared out at the empty yard for another moment. A sense of foreboding snuck up on him. He dismissed it. It was probably only because he didn’t like being left behind.

_ No, Taako’s good out here _ , he reminded himself, turning towards the stairs.  _ I’d rather not throw myself into the fray of battle, thank you very much. As much as it sucks having my legs hurt constantly, at least it means I don’t have to risk my life every other day. _ He wasn’t very convincing, even to himself.

“Hey, Luce, I’m on my way up,” he called, putting his foot on the first stair. “I--”

He was interrupted by the sound of Lucretia’s voice forming directly in his mind. “ _ They are going to be here soon. Stay downstairs. Make them underestimate you and do not let them kill you. I have a plan. _ ”

Taako froze. Several thoughts struck him all at once.

_ It's a diversion. _

_ They're coming here. _

_ To kill her. _

_ She knew _ .

_ Oh, fuck you, Lucy. _

The front door shattered with a  _ bang _ . A rush of smoke followed into the living room, making Taako cough and his eyes sting. Someone rushed past him and up the stairs, and he had to stop himself from lunging after them and trying to stop them. There was someone else behind him, and he turned to face them as the smoke cleared.

“You really shouldn’t be here,” said the dwarf man. The beginnings of a flame spell danced around his fingers.

Taako took precisely one second to compose himself and put on an act. He wobbled a little on his cane and said, “You know who I am, yeah? You should know I’m not really one to put myself in danger for people I don’t care about. Plus…” He gestured at the cane.

The flames on his hands flickered and died.

“So I hear you hate us,” Taako continued. “You’re probably here to kill Lucretia--again. I have to say, it seems like fate just isn’t on your side on this one. I’m an emissary of Istus, I think I know what I’m talking about.”

“How dare any of you talk to us about fate?” the dwarf snapped. “Besides, she’s probably dead already.” He glanced uneasily up the stairs. Taako forced himself not to look as well. He couldn’t hear anything that was going on up there.

“I mean, maybe you’re right. But you tried ambushing her and stabbing her, and that didn’t work--”

“Only because  _ you _ were there!” he snarled.

Taako ignored him. “And really, crashing the sphere should have killed everyone inside it, but it didn’t. Maybe you’re just not meant to be able to kill her.”

“Of all of you, we thought  _ you _ might be the most sympathetic to our cause. Now I see that you’re just--”

“Now  _ hold on _ ,” said Taako. Stress was making it difficult for him to stand. His legs were shaking, but he tried to keep from leaning too much of his weight on his cane--if this came down to a fight, he would need to be able to lift up his focus. His spells were just about the only thing he had going for himself in a fight these days, and he didn’t trust himself to be able to dodge anyone else’s spells. Avoidance was a tactic he no longer had access to after Wonderland. “I’m just  _ what _ ?”

“Just under her spell, like everyone else,” the dwarf spat.

Taako started laughing.

Seeming a little unnerved, the dwarf took a step back. He looked up the stairs again. “What is  _ taking so long _ ?! And why are you laughing?”

“Sorry, it’s just...the way you think she’s some sort of charm master? Or, or has so much charisma that we all can’t help but love her? That lady can’t cast an enchantment spell to save her life, and I once watched as she managed to accidentally insult a halfling noble on a faraway plane so badly that she got all seven of us banished from the kingdom permanently on pain of death,” Taako snorted. He wasn’t acting anymore.

“You seem pretty unbothered talking about the person who destroyed your whole life.”

More seriously, Taako said, “Look, Mr...do you have a name?”

“You don’t know my name? I thought you had sent that little detective after our scent,” said the dwarf.

“Oh, we did! But I didn’t care enough to bother learning it.” That wasn’t exactly true, but Taako needed to keep the guy guessing about his actual intentions.

“Jas. Jas Marblebreaker.”

“Cool. Jas. Look, Jas, I’m sure whatever happened to you sucked, but I’m not really interested in your sob story and I’d appreciate it if you stayed out of mine. I’m a pretty private fellow, you know? And what’s between me and Lucretia is gonna stay between me and Lucretia. People like to think that because a hundred years of our lives got projected into their heads, that they must know everything about us. Well, let me remind you, that story you heard? It was  _ written _ by Lucretia. It was only the parts that she wrote down. Everything you know was filtered through her head, through her words. So if you think that I’m the type of person who is going to turn against her, to hate her forever, well...that’s  _ her _ perception of me. But I’m more than what any one person sees me as,” he said.

“So you’re on her side,” Jas said. His hand raised, and a fireball formed, and Taako had just enough time to think,  _ oh, shit _ , before everything exploded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uh-oh, huh? <3


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is another chapter! I hope it's less tense than the last two, haha! <3

It had taken Lucretia less than ten seconds after the message was delivered to figure out that the hostage situation in Neverwinter was almost certainly a ruse to draw her family away from her. She was surprised that nobody else had pointed out that possibility--but then, it had become clear a long time ago that none of them were very good at thinking rationally when any of them were in danger. They all liked to tease Magnus about his tendency to rush in without thinking, but really, were the rest of them any better?

It should have given it away when she had told Magnus to give Taako one of the shield charges. Why would he need one if Lucretia didn’t think that there was a possibility of danger at the house? Well, whatever their thought process had been, at least they were all out of harm’s way besides Taako, and there wasn’t much that she could do about that besides give him fair warning and some protection magic.

Lucretia put her wand back underneath her pillow--better to take whoever shows up by surprise. She hoped it wouldn’t come to a fight, but she couldn’t be too cautious.

There was a  _ bang _ downstairs. Though she was prepared for it, she flinched anyway.  _ Please be careful, Taako, _ she pleaded silently.  _ Don’t do anything stupid. _

The sound of footsteps on the stairs made her tense up. She was pretty sure that she knew who would be opening her door, and it was confirmed when the door flew open and a charge of Dispel Magic flew through the room.  _ Checking for traps, smart _ , Lucretia thought, eyeing the half-elf woman, Artiy, who was now standing in the doorway. 

“You’ve been lucky so far,” she said, hatred burning on her face. She held out a long dagger with a green tint to the point. “But now we have you trapped, weak, and alone. You will  _ pay _ for the torment you put our world through, Lucretia.”

Without a word, Lucretia nodded.

“You agree, then? That you deserve to suffer like you made us suffer?” said Artiy.

“I would argue that I already have,” Lucretia said mildly. “But I understand your need to blame someone for the pain you’ve experienced. You probably won’t feel any better after killing me, though.”

Artiy took a step towards the bed, dagger outstretched. “I’m willing to take that chance.”

“I’m probably going to die in the next decade  _ anyway _ ,” countered Lucretia. “Look at me--I’m an old woman. Wonderland took more than just a few years from me, you know. And the attempts on my life haven’t been complete failures. I can’t even get out of bed anymore. But whatever you think of me, do you feel the same about the rest of my family?”

“...you were all involved in the creation of the relics,” Artiy said.

“True. But I was the one who made the decision to take the information away from the rest of the world and leave you unprepared. You haven’t been trying to kill them, so you can’t hate them as much as you hate me. Right?”

Artiy hesitated.

“I took an entire decade away from them,” Lucretia said. “I owe them that decade back--the seven of us, together. If you kill me today, I can’t repay that debt. Also, and I’m not saying this as a threat, but as a fact--if you kill me, my family will not stop until all three of you are dead. I may not deserve their loyalty and love, but I have it.”

“We’ve accepted the consequences of our choices.”

“It doesn’t have to be this way. Haven’t enough people died?” Lucretia pleaded. “I don’t want you to die, Artiy. I don’t want any more deaths on my conscience. Call me selfish.”

“Alright, you’re selfish.”

“There we go, then.” Lucretia smirked a little. “Also, three of my family members work directly for the Raven Queen, and whether or not it  _ should _ be, nepotism is alive and well in the Reaper industry. Make of that what you will.”

After a second, Artiy stepped back. “ _ Someone _ needs to rein you all in,” she snarled. “You have far too much power.”

“Well, I won’t argue with that. Still, we have it. And I for one would rather--”

The sound of an explosion downstairs made both Lucretia and Artiy look at the door sharply. Lucretia was quicker to react. While Artiy was distracted, she reached under her pillow, grabbed her want, and shot off a powerful Sleep spell. Artiy crumpled to the ground, and Lucretia tried to leap out of bed. Unfortunately, her legs wouldn’t hold up her weight and she ended up kneeling on the ground next to the unconscious body of the would-be assassin. Lucretia grabbed the poisoned dagger with her sleeve wrapped around her hand and threw it across the room. The explosion was still reverberating downstairs, and she could hear things falling, breaking, shattering, and someone crying out in pain.

“Taako!” she screamed. There was no answer. “Taako!”

Well, she couldn’t get downstairs, especially not leaving Artiy unguarded. She cast a few more spells that would keep Artiy bound, removed the poison from the dagger, then sent it into a holding plane for good measure. With difficulty, she hauled herself to her feet. Even this slight effort was making her heart race, and it didn’t help that she didn’t know if Taako was alright. Her blood pounded in her ears. She hoped the rest of the family would realize the ruse soon and come home.

Her guard down slightly, she didn’t notice the footsteps approaching the door until it was too late to do anything about it. She raised her wand instinctively, not knowing how many more spells she really had in her.

“Ah, don’t shoot, Luce,” said an exhausted Taako. He limped into the room and grabbed onto the chair in the corner for support. “And don’t go downstairs...not pretty down there.”

“What happened?” Lucretia demanded. She collapsed back to sit on her bed.

“Dwarf exploded himself.” Taako made a face. “Almost took me with him, but cha’boy’s sturdier than he usually is, thanks to you.”

Lucretia closed her eyes briefly. Her shield spell had come in handy, then. “Why did he explode himself?”

“I’m pretty sure it wasn’t his intention. Think maybe his magic got...a little twisted somewhere in there.” Wincing, Taako glanced at the half-elf prone on the floor. “She alive?”

“Yes.”

“She gonna wake up and try to kill us?”

“Probably not anytime soon. Taako, I’m sorry,” Lucretia said.

He used his cane to push himself back up into a position where he could walk and took a few shaky steps to sit next to her. He stared down at his lap. “Yeah?”

“I should have made sure you were out of the house--”

“Nope,” Taako said immediately. “Actually, fuck this, Lucretia. If you’re gonna apologize for anything, it’s going to be not  _ fucking telling anyone _ that assassins were coming to the house to kill you. You realize how fucked up that is, right?”

“It was...the best way to keep you all safe,” Lucretia replied.

“You’ve got a  _ bad _ track record with decisions like that, Lucy.”

“I know.”

“So why did you do it?”

She paused for a long time. “Old habits die hard,” she murmured eventually.

“What if you hadn’t been able to stall this lady? What if she had just killed you? I don’t--” Taako took a shaky breath and put his hand up to his mouth, looking away from her.

“Does it help to know I wasn’t intending on letting her kill me?”

“Not particularly!”

“Okay.”

“Everyone is going to be so pissed at you,” Taako added a moment later. “You’ll be lucky if Magnus ever lets you out of his sight again.”

“I know,” she said, almost smiling. That had been one of the first things she had thought about. “And I  _ am _ sorry, Taako.”

“You need to trust us. You  _ need _ to…”

“I know,” Lucretia repeated. “It’s hard to trust like that after being alone for so long.”

“And  _ whose fault  _ is that?”

“My own,” she admitted. "But, Taako, I sent you into danger far too many times, you and Magnus and Merle. It feels wrong to ask you to put yourself in danger for my sake anymore."

Taako put his hand on her shoulder and leaned closer to her. "You're never gonna need to ask, Creesh. That's the point," he said. "I just...ah, I can't keep having this conversation, I hurt too much and I'm fucking tired."

"I think I know what you're trying to say, and...I'll try to wrap my head around it." She reached up to touch his hand.

"How long d'you think it'll take them to figure it out?" asked Taako.

"Probably not very long."

"Should we call them?"

"If they're fighting the third person, it would be dangerous to distract them with a call. We'll just wait for them," Lucretia answered.

"Yeah." Taako closed his eyes. "Sure it's safe with assassin lady on the ground?"

"She's out cold and won't be able to move if she does wake up. Don't worry."

"Wasn't worried," mumbled Taako.

Lucretia kept her hand on her wand just in case.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I *think* there's only one chapter left, but this story surprises me a lot so I'm not going to officially say there are going to be exactly 15 chapters until I've actually finished writing the last chapter. Hope you enjoyed! <3


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heya, it's been a WHILE! I just couldnt get happy with the ending of this chapter, but i'm finally satisfied enough to throw it out into the world. enjoy!
> 
> OH Here is a warning for some mentions of blood and gore at the very beginning of the chapter! I think it's pretty mild, but it's definitely there.

The front room of the house looked like a bomb had gone off inside. Magnus had a distinct flashback to seeing the ruins of Raven's Roost. He pushed past Lup through the front door and put his hand over his mouth, swallowing a sickening wave of nausea at the sight of blood and... _ bits _ scattered across the destroyed, still smoldering room.

"Taako!" Lup shrieked.

Magnus prepared himself for silence, grabbing onto Merle's shoulder, his heart in his throat.

"Upstairs, Lu!" came the immediate response, and Magnus choked out a half-sob, half-sigh of relief.

They rushed towards the burnt stairs as Kravitz arrived with Davenport and Carey, who took in the scene at a glance and began running upstairs as well.

Magnus almost tripped over the body of a half-elf woman on the floor as he went straight for Lucretia and swept her up in a hug so tight it made her yelp. "Don't  _ ever _ do that to me again!"

"Did you know?" asked Davenport.

"Yes," Lucretia confessed. "I'm sorry."

Meanwhile, Lup had wrapped herself around Taako. He had one arm free, which he was using to hold Kravitz's hand.

"Lucretia and Taako are safe," Carey was saying into her stone of farspeech. "At least one assassin is dead, I think--this one looks alive but unconscious. Yes, they're  _ fine _ ."

Lup had broken down crying. "Th-thought you were a goner when I saw that mess downstairs," she told Taako, trying to force some humor into her voice.

"Me too, for a second there. 'm fine, calm down, everything's fine."

Magnus had pulled Lucretia upright to hug her, but he was now having to hold her up. She was trembling and couldn't seem to support her own weight. "Are you hurt?" he demanded.

"Not any worse than when you left," she promised.

"Taako? Are  _ you _ hurt?" Merle asked gruffly.

"Ah...cha'boy could use a heal, got a few bumps and bruises when the dude nuked himself down there," Taako said. He managed to coax Lup to let go of him for long enough for Merle to cast a healing spell. "Would've been a lot worse if Lucretia hadn't done the shield thing."

"I'm sorry my precaution was necessary." Lucretia shuddered and grabbed onto Magnus's arms weakly. "Magnus, I think I need to sit down."

He lowered her down onto the bed. "We're gonna talk," he said, trying to sound angry and failing miserably. "But right now I'm just glad you're alive."

"My sentiments exactly," Davenport agreed. He and Carey were examining the half-elf for any hidden weapons. "But Lucretia, I'm  _ very _ disappointed in you."

Magnus saw Lucretia wilt at that.

"I'm not going downstairs until it's cleaned up, but I am desperately in need of a shower and clean clothes. I've got...burnt dwarf on my shirt," Taako said, disgusted. With Lup and Kravitz supporting him, they left the room.

Carey prodded the half-elf with her foot. "What are we doing with the two living ones? Will Stirling lock them away for us?"

"Locking them away seems like a light sentence," said Davenport.

"They shouldn't be killed or locked up," Lucretia said. She seemed short of breath, still shaky, like the stress combined with her injuries were too much for her. "They deserve compensation and help, like everyone else who suffered in the Hunger's attacks. That's the Bureau's job now."

"...we'll figure that out later. First, let's just get her somewhere she won't be able to hurt anyone," Davenport said. He looked at Magnus. "You stay here." Together with Merle and Carey, he took the assassin's limp body out of the room.

And Magnus and Lucretia were left alone. He stared at her, her shaky hands clutching her wand as she sat on the edge of her bed and took deep, unsteady breaths. "Are you sure you weren't hurt?" he said worriedly.

Lucretia nodded. "I was, but not today."

"It's just the injuries from the fall that haven't finished healing?" Magnus checked.

"Mostly. But I can also feel every other injury I've received over the past fifteen years somehow," she said dryly. "Side effect of getting old, I think."

"Your body is only...what, fifty...six? Fifty-seven? Is that  _ old _ ?"

"It is when you've been injured as many times as I have. I'm sure you'll feel the same way in twenty years." Lucretia winced. "We were spoiled, staying young for so long."

"Oh, are you going to start talking about mortality again?" Magnus said as lightly as he could, which wasn't especially light. He sat down with her and put his hands over hers, making her put her wand down.

"Seems a relevant topic when I've had assassins after me for months. But no, I won't get into it. I'm tired, Magnus," she said plainly. "I would rather think about something else, too."

"Yeah…" Suddenly, Magnus gasped. "Greta!"

"What?"

Magnus leapt up and rushed towards the window, throwing aside the curtain and looking down into the backyard. To his relief, his newest puppy was standing near the back fence and watching intently as a squirrel made its way across the top, seemingly unconcerned with the explosions and other chaos that had taken place in the house behind her. "My dog is okay," he sighed.

"Oh! Oh, that's good-- _ ow _ ," Lucretia said, tacking on the mutter at the end of the sentence as she turned her body towards him.

Now that he knew the puppy was safe, Magnus could return to worrying about Lucretia. "Lie down, why don't you?" he scolded lightly.

She nodded as she started inching herself backwards towards her pillows. Magnus helped move the blankets so she had a clear path. The movement seemed exhausting, and she ended up slumped backwards with her eyes closed and her chest rising and falling rapidly.

"Are you okay?" he asked, unable to keep from checking.

"I'll be alright." She sounded breathless. "Magnus?"

Magnus sat back down with her. "I'm here."

"I understand why you're all angry," she murmured. "I truly do. I'm sorry."

"...yeah."

"But...if you could...make sure everyone refrained from chastising me until I've had the chance to take a rest, I would...appreciate it. I'm not sure I could bear that right now."

"I gotcha." Magnus tugged the blankets up to her shoulders and helped her to lie down more comfortably against her pillows. "I don't think I can physically leave your side right now, if that's okay?"

Lucretia pulled one of her arms back out from under the blankets and reached for his hand. "You know I'm always grateful for the time you spend with me, Magnus."

He felt his eyes sting as he took her hand. "Shit, Lucy, are you really trying to make me  _ more _ emotional than I already was? Ah, jeez." He wiped his eyes. "Just go to sleep before you make this old man bawl."

"And you were trying to say that  _ I _ wasn't old just a few minutes ago," Lucretia replied, smiling. "I don't think I'm going to be asleep just yet, Magnus, I'm just going to...lay here with my eyes closed and rest.”

“That’s fine,” he told her. He watched as her breathing slowed. Despite her insistence otherwise, he could tell that she was falling asleep. Magnus smiled a little. “Sleep well,” he whispered. “I’ll be here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whatever the next chapter ends up being, it will almost definitely be the final chapter. i think it's gonna be something with angus? but i haven't written any of it, and i have no idea how long it'll take. i'm working on other stuff though which i think y'all are going to be happy about! including a fic i'm 3/4 of the way done with which i have been referring to as "sad gnome hours" lmao. also, college has been kicking my butt a little bit, so i'm p busy, but i'll still find plenty of time to write, i'm sure.
> 
> hope you are all doing well! keep breathing and doing your best, whatever your best looks like! i believe in you and i love you and i'm proud of you for getting this far <3 ~Martin

**Author's Note:**

> Pssst...I'm @argonaut--keene on tumblr...be my friend...
> 
> Also please let me know what you thought of the story!


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